CHAPTER 295: CHAPTER 285 COLD WIND

o’clock.

The Hongliu Road Primary School campus was already empty, the wind howling as it carried the chill of midwinter, making even the street lamps appear colder.

On such a cold winter night, if there wasn’t something important, no one would be outside wandering around.

Yet, amidst the wind, there was the sound of running footsteps.

A figure entered through the school gate, heading straight for the residential area, running all the way to the stairwell. Just as they were about to go upstairs, they hesitated and, after lingering at the foot of the stairs for a moment, took out their phone.

Tu Hengsha came out of the bathroom, her freshly blow-dried hair fluffy and draping loosely, the bangs stubbornly sticking out in all directions in an unruly shape.

The light was still on in Shu Hui’s room; as she leaned closer, she saw Mom was still grading papers.

"Mom, go to bed early!" she said out of habit.

"Okay, I’ll sleep soon, you go ahead." Shu Hui replied without lifting her head.

Tu Hengsha sighed softly to herself, knowing that although Mom agreed, with her temperament, she wouldn’t go to sleep until she finished grading.

She returned to her room, and the phone on the table started vibrating.

To what extent could she be familiar with someone’s calls? She didn’t need to look; from a distance, based on the number of characters and the general stroke direction of the note, she knew who it was.

But she didn’t want to answer.

After vibrating for quite a while, the call finally stopped, but soon after, a message came through.

She didn’t read it either and went straight to sleep.

After all, wasn’t today the day he got engaged to Su Rongxing?

However, she found it impossible to sleep peacefully because someone didn’t intend to let her rest.

Following her lack of response to the message, the phone rang again and persistently, as if determined to keep calling unless she answered.

Even though she kept it on vibrate, perhaps the night was too quiet, so that tiny vibration felt amplified numerous times over, irritating and disturbing her even with the covers over her head!

In the end, she angrily sat up. If not for their rule requiring the phone to be kept on 24/7, she would have switched it off!

Eventually, she picked up the phone, canceled the call, and checked the message. Someone sent a simple line, "Babe, pick up the phone, I have something to tell you."

The phone vibrated once more.

This time, she answered, calmly saying, "Hello."

"Little Sha!" The person on the other end finally seemed relieved. "You finally answered."

"If there’s something to say, just say it. I’m already in bed." Her calm voice carried a hint of cold hardness.

"Little Sha, I wanted to explain what’s been happening these days..."

He paused, trying to organize his words, but she interrupted, "I know, today you got engaged to Su Rongxing."

Hearing that, he quickly said, "No, it’s not..."

"I know too..." she continued, "you’re not really engaged."

He breathed a sigh of relief again, "As long as you know..."

"Alright, if there’s nothing else, I’m going back to sleep. Goodbye." With that, she hung up and went under the covers. He wouldn’t call to bother her again, right?

He stood at the stairway entrance, right in the wind’s path, the cold wind of the winter night blowing into his body, his hand holding the phone was already numb from the cold, still hearing her two "I knows," and when she said, "you’re not really engaged."

At first, he was somewhat proud. His girl was truly smart, clever, without needing explanation, but after the pride, he felt something was off with their conversation, yet he couldn’t call to ask again. She said she wanted to sleep...

All his cars were unusable right now, as he had taken a cab here, and now he had to go back out and hail another one.

Walking back against the biting cold wind, it felt as if even his blood had frozen and stopped circulating.

The Su family.

Su Rongxing sat in her room, holding her phone, lost in thought for a long time.

Her latest Weibo post was clarifying her engagement news, stating that there was no engagement party. The reason for this was because her father, Su Zhen, had been proven unrelated to the murder case, and she wanted to lure out the real culprit.

Of course, she hadn’t explained why hosting an engagement party would attract the culprit, dismissing it with a simple sentence: The reasons behind this are inconvenient to disclose, and she apologized for the misleading engagement news posted on Weibo and promised to delete the post, never to speak of it again.

She had to delete every post about her and Su Ronggui.

Her Weibo was now free of such content, but she hadn’t actually deleted them; she just made them visible only to herself.

How could she delete them? How could she bear to?

From today onward, until the end of her days, she would be with him.

Since she wrote those words, she had repeated them countless times, with each recitation strengthening her resolve.

Why couldn’t she be with him? Just like tonight, she stayed by his side, always, forever.

Everyone knew the engagement party was fake, yet she regarded it as real.

"Knock, knock, knock," the sound of knocking on the door echoed.

"Rongxing." It was Su Rongcheng.

She put away her phone, "The door isn’t locked, come in."

"Dad wants us to go to the study." Su Rongcheng stood at the door without entering.

"Okay, I’ll go," she replied.

In the study, Shang Qingmei held Su Zhen’s hand, her eyes brimming with tears, "You’re finally home! It must have been hard for you these past days!"

Su Zhen had already been proven unrelated to Fan Yue’s murder case, but he hadn’t come home, staying instead at a villa in the suburbs, as his children suggested.

Shang Qingmei had a hint of reunion joy in her eyes, but not Su Zhen; he sighed before his old wife, "More hardship is yet to come! Though I’m clear of the murder, our company’s issues..." He shook his head, "won’t be so easy to resolve!"

There was still a pile of newspapers on the desk, which he had asked someone to gather after returning home, all containing reports about him. The print media wasn’t as bad; he knew all those responsible and irresponsible online reports had already made him a target for everyone, beat down and cursed online.

He had always been protective of his reputation; otherwise, he wouldn’t have spent so much money on charity work. Now, his lifelong carefully maintained image as a private entrepreneur had been completely overturned. How could he not be distressed? In his pain, he even questioned Shang Qingmei, "I’ve engaged in speculation and deceptions, but does that mean I’m worthless? They say I’ve been using public funds for my charity publicity, but even before we went public, I often did charitable work. Back then I still took Rongxing, Rongcheng, and Ah Fu with me, even when Ah Fu was not well, organizing many things to take to them, all the books Ah Fu picked one by one..."

Ah Fu was his former wife.

Shang Qingmei’s face stiffened slightly.

Su Zhen, however, didn’t notice and was still lost in his own emotions, "How did I become an unforgivable bad guy? I am a good person; I’m a conscientious entrepreneur; I built everything from scratch, giving back to my fellow countrymen and society. How am I a complete villain?"