Yu Tu pushed open the door and came in.
Xia Qing put away her mixed, unorganized trains of thought. She took a deep breath. She had been drunk yesterday and lost control over herself. Now was the time to redeem her image.
She smilingly watched Yu Tu sit down, and then she spoke the opening remark that she had already prepared at an earlier time.
"Zhai Liang said that your phone often has no signal, and that really turned out to be the case. Is that a measure to maintain confidentiality? The phone cannot be brought into the lab?"
Yu Tu nodded, then said directly, "Why are you looking for me?"
"I waited for you for two hours. Don't tell me you'll just say a few words to settle the matter, and then you're leaving?" Xia Qing's attitude was obviously different from last time. "Have you eaten dinner? Do you want to order something?"
"I ate in the canteen."
The waiter came over. Yu Tu just ordered a cup of tea.
After the waiter left, Xia Qing said, "After the gathering ended yesterday, Zhai Liang and I found a place and drank for quite a long time. I heard that you went back to the research institute again?"
"Yes."
"He is actually quite worried about you, said that you are not in the right frame of mind, but he doesn't feel it's appropriate for him to ask too much." Xia Qing showed deep concern as a friend. "Is there a problem over there at Zhong X?"
Yu Tu lifted his eyes to look at her.
Zhai Liang would never be worried about anything. Her way of making use of other people to beat around the bush like this naturally caused people to feel annoyed. He looked at his watch, intending on ending this meeting as soon as possible. He said very briefly, "No problems. I am more suited for the research institute."
Noticing his expression, Xia Qing decided to change the topic immediately —— this topic was not important at all, and she had no interest, either, in finding out about it. She was merely using Zhai Liang as an excuse to make her action of coming to find him reasonable.
She was all smiles and got into the topic that she truly cared about. "By the way, how did you end up playing games with Qiao Jing Jing? During yesterday's gathering, everyone discussed this for a long time and blamed us for not saying earlier that Qiao Jing Jing is our senior high school classmate. How were we supposed to say it? We had never been well acquainted with her."
"I heard that the two of you even drank together? I thought about it over and over again but still thought that was impossible. Thus, after they left, I deliberately verified with you." She had now provided reason for and also glossed over the drunken, gaffe phone call she had made yesterday. She smilingly said, "I hadn't expected that it really was her."
"How did you two manage to get together?" She pretended to be curious and asked this once again.
Yu Tu said indifferently, "We were senior high school classmate, so it is not surprising that we are in contact with each other."
Xia Qing's words were shut down for a moment with his response.
You and her were high school classmates, but I was not? Is this answer too perfunctory?
"Yes." Xia Qing showed an expression of agreement. "But she has never been in the class group chat. I thought she doesn't like to be in contact with her former classmates."
"Speaking of which, she is currently the most successful person out of our whole class." She stirred the coffee and sighed. "On the contrary, we're not that successful. Once you're out in society, what's the use of good grades? You still have to depend on EQ."
Yu Tu lowered his eyes slightly. "She graduated from a key university."
"Did she?" She had a look, like she just realized this. "I didn't pay much attention to her back when I was studying. But I admire her very much. The entertainment circle is such a complicated place where the dragons and snakes mingle. Every sort of person can be found in it But she can mix so well and is so popular. She must definitely have sacrificed a lot."
Her tone was relaxed, like she was casually chatting.
"Xia Qing."
Suddenly, Yu Tu called her name.
Xia Qing paused.
"I think, maybe I should say sorry to you."
With Xia Qing's surprised expression on him, Yu Tu looked straight at her and said in an even voice, "I was too impetuous when I said yes at the time. I only considered that you were independent enough, but never thought about what I myself should put in. Facts have proved that I was not a good choice. Fortunately, you have always been smart and cut your losses in a timely manner."
He was saying sorry, but the eyes that were looking at her were cold, without the slightest bit of regret.
Suddenly Xia Qing understood. He was not apologizing at all. Clearly, it was because she had just hinted that Qiao Jing Jing might not have gotten to the top by proper channels that he could not wait and was fighting back for her.
And this seemingly apologetic speech, from beginning to end, was just telling her that he had never truly loved her.
For a split second, her heart felt like it was being pricked by needles.
She had merely hinted with one sentence, but he had gone so far as to use words in such a way to hurt her.
Xia Qing practically wanted to sneer. "Yu Tu, is this your gentleman's behavior?"
Yu Tu looked indifferent: "We haven't been in contact with each other for a long time. Why must you?"
Xia Qing did not speak anymore. All the probing she had prepared had all lost their meaning now. The discontentment that had been growing in her like weeds in the past few days was extinguished in an instant and cooled down completely.
She knew that she had completely miscalculated her position in Yu Tu's heart and the remaining affection he had for her. He did not even have the patience to deal with her. Thus, she had lost everything. But luckily, no one else saw this defeat.
She tried her best to finish drinking her coffee gracefully, then summoned the waiter to pay the bill. When she got up, she insinuated, "No wonder you went back to the research institute. After all, you don't need to worry about material things now. Hope that you can hold on to this firmly."
Their conversation had come to such a point. There was no need to see each other again in this lifetime.
Yu Tu continued to sit in the cafe for a while.
When he left, it started to drizzle outside. Yu Tu stood under the eaves. Suddenly, he thought, if he were already together with her now, would he need to report what happened today to her?
How would he report it? How would she respond?
However, he probably in the end would choose not to mention this.
After all, today was her birthday…
He was lost in thought for a long time. Soon, he realized his ridiculousness. He turned up the collar, bowed his head, and walked into the rain.
When he got home, he was already soaked from head to toe. Zhai Liang, looking a little embarrassed, greeted him. Seeing his soaked look, he slipped into the bathroom to get him a towel.
"Is it okay that I told Xia Qing your work unit address? She can find it online anyway."
"It doesn't matter. She probably won't come find me again in the future."
After Zhai Liang was informed of the whole situation, he couldn't help but sigh. "Such a hard-hearted man."
"Yesterday, you didn't tell them about Jing Jing"—Yu Tu paused for a while in his action of rubbing the hair—"playing games with us, right?"
"Of course not, since you've warned me repeatedly. I just acted as if I don't know Cotton. I even more so won't say how bad she used to play."
Yu Tu glanced at him. Zhai Liang quickly made a zip-lip gesture.
"I say, don't tell me that in your heart, you, hee hee~~~" He shook his head. "Speaking of which, Cotton is very adorable. She's lively and acts cute, like a little girl. Even now, I still can't connect her with that big star."
"But although she was your senior high school classmate, the distance between both of you is too wide now. She is way out of your league. We played games with her for almost two months, but now she doesn't even say anything to us and just disappears." Zhai Liang shrugged his shoulders, "Indeed, big star are really not easy to get close to."
"In the game…she hasn't logged in anymore?"
"No. I looked at her history log. It's remained the same, stopped on the day of the exhibition match. The results of the last two games were quite awesome."
Yu Tu silently rubbed his hair. After a little while, he said: "She gave me two KPL tickets, to let me go together with you, but I didn't call you."
Zhai Liang eyes grew wide. "What?"
He couldn't believe it. "She gave me a ticket?"
"The ticket is just under the coffee table in the living room." Covered by the towel, Yu Tu closed his eyes. "Zhai Liang, I made her angry, which is why she hasn't appeared. Don't misunderstand her."