SM Chapter 44

“Okay, I’ll take you home.”

“Okay, I’ll take you home.”

She had to work on Monday, and every weekend she stayed at Huating, she would leave on Sunday.

Tan Zhi Xu said “home” meant going back to Shen Yi, and indeed it was “we.” They ate lunch outside, and even went to the supermarket to buy ingredients to cook dinner.

However, at three o’clock in the afternoon, Zhu Shihao received a call from her sister. Feeling puzzled, she glanced at Tan Zhi Xu next to her and answered the call.

Almost the second it connected, Zhu Suiyi’s question came crashing down: “Where are you?”

Even stranger, this tone.

“Outside,” she said after some thought, answering conservatively.

Zhu Suiyi held the phone in one hand and crossed her arms in the other, standing at ease, with one foot lightly tapping the ground. Jia Jia squatted beside her, a small, huddled figure, resting her cheek on her hand.

Staring at the door in front of her, she said simply and clearly: “Come back and open the door for me.”

Zhu Shihao paused for a moment: “…You’re at my place?”

“Mhm.” Her tone took a winding path, Zhu Suiyi retorted, “Otherwise, why would I need you to open the door for me?”

Without waiting for Zhu Shihao to answer, she continued: “Hurry back, Jia Jia and I are waiting for you outside.” With that, she hung up the phone directly.

Jia Jia tilted her head ninety degrees: “Mommy, when is Auntie coming back?”

Zhu Suiyi looked down at her, lowered herself and ruffled the top of her head: “She’s coming back now. Wait, there’s definitely something wrong with her!”

As she said this, she squinted her eyes and her tone was certain.

Jia Jia didn’t understand what “definitely something wrong” meant, but seeing that her mother seemed very serious, she decided not to ask.

After being hung up on, Zhu Shihao was silent for a moment, then got up to change clothes: “Suiyi ran to Ruili, I have to go back and open the door for her.”

“Open the door?” Tan Zhi Xu followed her.

Her hand paused as she reached for clothes, and she said honestly: “It’s just to avoid being caught in the act, you know?”

Almost laughing in exasperation, Tan Zhi Xu leaned against the wall, the expression on his face a forced smile: “You might as well explain it clearly, caught doing what?”

Perhaps the wording was a bit too much, and she also felt a little guilty, but now Zhu Suiyi’s matter was more crucial.

“Anyway, if my parents, my sister, or anyone came in and saw us doing that, wouldn’t it be terrible? So I changed the password and deleted the fingerprints.”

What could he say?

Tan Zhi Xu said faintly: “Thorough.”

Understanding her reason for doing so, even though he felt unhappy, he didn’t say anything more. Instead, he said: “I’ll take you.”

“No way! Absolutely not!”

Zhu Shihao reacted as if a trigger word had been spoken, instantly straightening her body, widening her eyes, her whole being expressing rejection.

She was feeling very guilty about her relationship with him right now, afraid that Zhu Suiyi would discover any clues, so how could she dare let Tan Zhi Xu appear in front of her sister?

Swallowing the rest of his words, Tan Zhi Xu lowered his eyes and said nothing more.

Watching her enter the elevator without looking back, he didn’t close the door until quite a while later, then returned to the house. Sitting on the sofa, even though it was just one person less, he inexplicably felt a lot emptier.

However, she seemed really afraid of people discovering their relationship.

Remembering Tan Zhi Xu’s expression before the elevator doors closed, Zhu Shihao felt strange, but time was pressing, so she didn’t have much time to think about it.

Hurriedly hailing a taxi, she was devising scenarios and excuses in the car.

When she returned to Ruili, it had been more than half an hour since Zhu Suiyi had called her, and sure enough, there was a large one and a small one in front of the door.

Jia Jia was very excited: “Auntie, you’re finally back, I was tired of waiting.”

Secretly glancing at Zhu Suiyi, Zhu Shihao touched Jia Jia’s face: “Sorry for the wait, Jia Jia.”

A sneer came from the side.

Zhu Shihao: “…”

As soon as Jia Jia entered the door, she changed her shoes and ran to the sofa. Zhu Shihao silently watched her sister open the shoe cabinet for a thorough search, change her shoes, and then stand in the middle of the dining room and living room for a full inspection.

Pretending not to know what she was doing, Zhu Shihao went to the kitchen to get water from the refrigerator, and then her sister followed and casually pulled open the cabinet where the water cups were placed to take a look.

Zhu Shihao’s face didn’t betray anything, but she exclaimed inwardly that it was fortunate, fortunate that Tan Zhi Xu’s slippers and such were there from the start, so her sister wouldn’t find anything different.

…As long as she didn’t go to her bedroom to rummage through the closet.

After taking a cup and pouring water, she left the kitchen only to see Zhu Suiyi sitting at the dining table with her arms crossed, looking like she was about to conduct an interrogation.

Zhu Shihao: “…”

Putting down her water cup, she took another glass of milk and placed it on the coffee table, not forgetting to tell Jia Jia: “Wait until it’s not hot before you drink it.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhu Suiyi’s voice came from the other side.

“Alright, come over here.”

Zhu Shihao maintained a natural and calm demeanor. First, she went to the kitchen, took out her own water glass, and sat down across from her: “What’s up?”

Zhu Suiyi snorted, raised her chin slightly, and glanced at her condescendingly: “Confess. What’s the situation?”

“Huh?” Zhu Shihao responded while drinking water.

Zhu Suiyi’s eyes showed scrutiny: “Why did you change the password? Mom and Dad don’t even know, right? Hmph, Zhu Shihao, you have a secret.”

Knowing her tactics like the back of her hand, she wasn’t fooled at all.

“Miss, don’t just make things up,” Zhu Shihao rolled her eyes, “The week before last, I came back from the store and ran into the delivery guy. He was waiting for me to sign, and he had cut his hand. The fingerprint verification failed several times, so I anxiously entered the password.”

“After putting down my things, I remembered that the delivery guy might have seen me enter the password, so I wasn’t comfortable and simply changed the password.”

So logical, her safety awareness deserved praise.

But her intuition told her that it wasn’t that simple.

“Then what about the fingerprints? Why are they gone too?”

She had anticipated this question.

Zhu Shihao didn’t panic at all: “It’s not just your fingerprint, everyone’s fingerprints are gone. When I changed the password, I deleted them all. I re-recorded my own later.”

Facing the suspicious look across from her, she added: “If you don’t believe me, go look. There are only two users inside now, 001 is the password, 002 is my fingerprint.”

Alright.

Although she felt that something was wrong, Zhu Suiyi’s gaze remained suspicious. But after thinking about it, she couldn’t find a breakthrough, so she had to let it go for the time being: “Okay.”

Her tone was reluctant, somewhat unwilling.

“Otherwise?”

Zhu Shihao’s face didn’t show it, but she breathed a sigh of relief internally, she had bet right.

In fact, she knew that Zhu Suiyi couldn’t possibly rummage through her bedroom, and because of her performance and laziness, she wouldn’t really check the door’s users.

Otherwise, she would probably discover that there was another user 003 on the combination lock, which was Tan Zhi Xu.

“Then what’s the new password? Tell me, and let me record my fingerprint,” Zhu Suiyi took a sip of water and asked very naturally.

The person listening almost choked.

The password was definitely no problem, but how could she record her fingerprint? Once she recorded it, wouldn’t it be obvious that she was 004?

However, Zhu Shihao’s expression was calm. She almost unhesitatingly told her the password: “As for the fingerprint, I’ll find the manual later.”

Zhu Suiyi didn’t suspect anything at all, she just recited the password several times.

The atmosphere returned to normal, and the sisters began to chat. Even though they chatted on WeChat as well, they still had a lot to say when they met in person.

Zhu Shihao had a quiet nature, her words and actions were gentle, so she often felt that chatting with Zhu Suiyi, who had a slightly flamboyant personality and was full of emotion, was a very fun thing.

It could be said that Jia Jia’s imitation ability was currently less than a tenth of her mother’s.

This chat went on until dinner time, and Zhu Shihao just remembered: “Oh right, doesn’t Jia Jia have dance lessons today?”

“It’s so kind of you to remember now,” Zhu Suiyi rolled her eyes and said speechlessly, “If she had dance lessons, would I have brought her out here? We have to rush back by four o’clock.”

Zhu Shihao touched Jia Jia who was sitting beside her: “No lessons, then Auntie will take you to eat something delicious.”

Zhu Suiyi raised her eyebrows: “Eat what?”

“Anything, Western food, Chinese food? Hot pot, barbecue?” She kicked the ball back.

Zhu Suiyi thought about it: “Chinese food, this little one doesn’t really care for Western food, and she can’t really eat hot pot or barbecue.”

“Alright,” Zhu Shihao thought for a moment, and inquired: “How about a private kitchen? Rong Ji’s Chinese pastries are really good, Jia Jia should like them.”

It was a good suggestion.

But still suspicious, Zhu Suiyi asked: “Are you sure we can go now?”

Hearing this, Zhu Shihao didn’t even think about it, and blurted out: “Ask Zhi Xu.”

Very confidently.

Zhu Suiyi gave her a thumbs up.

If she and Tan Zhi Xu were still a little polite, her sister and Tan Zhi Xu were completely unreserved. With this connection, Zhu Suiyi felt that it was okay to freeload a meal.

“You guys get ready, I’ll call Zhi Xu.”

Of course, you have to go to the bathroom before leaving. Zhu Suiyi picked out three cups, planning to take them to wash first, turned her back to her, and said loudly: “If he’s free, invite him to come too.”

“Okay,” Zhu Shihao answered.

She walked to the window. At this time of year, the sky was still bright around six o’clock.

The phone she dialed was answered after a few rings. She already had a smile on her face: “Zhi Xu.”

“Yeah.” Taking his eyes off the computer, Tan Zhi Xu leaned back, took off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What’s up?”

“What are you doing?” She asked instead of answering.

Tan Zhi Xu took the opportunity to close his eyes to relax: “Nothing, at home.”

Idle and annoyed, so he chose to work overtime.

“We want to go to a private kitchen for dinner, and we’re looking for you to help us, and then, if you’re free, we’ll invite you to join us,” Zhu Shihao said directly, sliding her finger on the glass.

If it were a foggy winter, his name would appear on the glass window.

“Rong Ji?”

“Yeah, you’re free, right?” An image of Tan Zhi Xu’s expression as she walked through the elevator doors when she left Shen Yi appeared in her mind. “Let’s go together, let’s go together.”

Saving the progress on the computer, Tan Zhi Xu got up.

“Okay, what do you want to eat? I’ll tell them first.”

She thought for a moment, shook her head: “You can decide, and order two pastries for Jia Jia.”

Tan Zhi Xu agreed, walking towards the bedroom as he asked: “How are you getting there, or should I pick you up?”

“Wait, let me ask.” Zhu Shihao tilted her head and asked Zhu Suiyi, who was going to the bathroom: “Did you drive?”

Before Zhu Suiyi could speak, Jia Jia answered first: “We did.”

Zhu Suiyi nodded and said “uh-huh” twice, entering the bathroom without looking back.

“Then I’ll ride in Suiyi’s car. Are you driving?”

Tan Zhi Xu turned on the speakerphone and placed it on the glass display case, taking off his house clothes: “Yeah, I’m driving, I’ll take you home tonight.”

Huh?

She secretly glanced at the closed bathroom door, then looked at Jia Jia, who was taking cookies from the entrance and secretly stuffing them into her bag, still instinctively covering her mouth and lowering her voice.

“Take me home? Why take me home? Shouldn’t it be bring me?”

Take and bring, a difference of one word, but a world of difference.

But she had to admit that the unhappiness that had filled her all afternoon was, in that instant, completely soothed.

His hand paused while changing clothes, and a smile gradually spread across Tan Zhi Xu’s face as he continued to change.

“Okay, I’ll bring you home.”

There would never be a second person in this life who could so easily grasp his mood in an instant.