“There is no knowing what is in a person’s heart…” I didn’t know if Shu Tong was talking about me, or Dong Xiaoye and Mo Fei those two women. Anyway, she didn’t respond to Liusu’s question directly. Instead, she said seriously, “Liusu, you need to listen to me. As long as you two aren’t married, you shouldn’t let him take advantage of you. What men pursue is not women, but the process they go through when they pursue women and the sense of accomplishment at the moment when they get women. The things they cherish will always be things they haven’t obtained. Once we are ‘owned’ by them, the pursuit will come to an end, and they will inevitably lose their interests and enthusiasm…”
“It’s like a story book. No matter how exciting the content is, people will get bored after reading it repeatedly. We women are like a story book. So before we get married, we must not let him see the ‘end’. We should always tantalize them. Have you seen what kind of woman is around him? That rich lady called Mo Fei is more beautiful than you, richer than you, and more educated than you. And then that policewoman called Dong Xiaoye. She is as lively as you, but she has a better figure than you, and has a much more generous temperament than you. Unlike you, she won’t get jealous easily. The most important thing is that, in the eyes of that rascal, he has known you for more than five years, he must have already lost interest in you. But compared to you, a heroic policewoman is much more interesting…”
What Shu Tong said was very reasonable, even I couldn’t help but nod on the side. But after I realized that she was talking about me, I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry.
I admit that regarding the relationship with Mo Fei, I still wasn’t sure how to handle it properly, so I felt guilty. But in terms of Dong Xiaoye, I really only treated her as a friend.
Shu Tong heaved a sigh of relief and said sternly, “even if I am a woman, I can’t help but envy that that rascal is surrounded by such a beautiful person, let alone he is a man. Liusu, there is only one wolf, but there is a herd of sheep. You are not his only choice. At this point, you must learn from my experience. Who knows if your Chu Nan is the same as Liu Xiaosheng? If he dares to cheat on you, then you can just dump him. After all, you didn’t lose anything…”
Damn you. You even have the audacity to say that Liusu should learn from your experience. If I were Liu Xiaosheng, if you didn’t let me kiss you or touch you after we were together for half a year, I would definitely already dump you!
Although Liusu looked like a carefree girl who didn’t mind many things, she was actually the same as Shu Tong, they were both more traditional and conservative. Seeing her cautious eyes flowed with the light of vigilance, my forehead was sweating. Then I heard Shu Tong on the other side of the phone smirked and said, “Marriage is a man’s grave. Once you trick him into marrying you, then you don’t need to be worried about anything anymore. But if you let him take away the most important thing to you as a woman before getting married, then your life will be over. Liusu, you really need to think carefully. Anyway, I will prepare the dish you like the most tonight, so don’t come home late.”
It was true that I was wrong about what kind of woman Shu Tong was. She was not a foolish nerdy woman at all! Who said she was dumb? She was even wiser than all other women! ‘Marriage is a man’s grave’, she even knew about this! And she wanted to use this to trap a man! Compared with Dong Xiaoye, at this moment, I felt that Shu Tong was more like a tiger. Thinking that the nerdy-looking girl would turn into a tigress at home, I couldn’t help but sympathize with the man who would marry her in the future.
Liusu eventually went home under Shu Tong’s persuasion. Although I really disliked Shu Tong installing her conservative thoughts into Liusu’s mind, I didn’t have much time to think about other things. Because I still needed to look for my little sister.
After being disturbed by Shu Tong’s call, Liusu and I were both a little absent-minded, and I also failed to realize a very important problem; I had difficulty in walking.
Below the flat, the bus station, and the street park… With a wounded leg, I went to any place Chu Yuan would usually go, but I still couldn’t find her. Where could she go? Did she go to my parents’ house? Highly unlikely. She wouldn’t complain about this kind of embarrassing thing to my stepmother.
Dongfang Lianren! This name suddenly popped out in my mind. Chu Yuan and Dongfang were best friends. Could it be that she ran to her? Thinking of this, I hurriedly tried to take out my phone from my pocket. Only then did I remember that I didn’t have my mobile phone with me, so I returned home immediately.
This time, I really almost crawled back to the fourth floor. After walking around, the pain caused by the wound on my thigh was so painful that I almost collapsed. My clothes had already been soaked wet by my sweat and stuck to my back. I felt anxious, exhausted, painful, and very uncomfortable. But when I pushed the door and walked into my flat, I was dazed. Because the person I was looking for, my little sister Chu Yuan, was currently sitting cross-legged on the side of the sofa that was not damp. Seeing me come back, she glanced at me coldly, snorted, and then continued to pretend to flip through the newspaper…
This bratty girl had actually come back long ago!
After thinking about it, I scowled, pretending I hadn’t been looking for her and went to open the refrigerator and take out a bottle of Coke. I poured a glass and then drank it slowly to moisturize my dry throat. Then I said coldly, “Didn’t you run away? Why are you coming back again?”
“This is my home, if I don’t come back here, then where can I go?” Chu Yuan didn’t lift her eyelids. “It should be Cheng Liusu that needs to leave.” She said.
“Is this how you talk to your elder brother?” In order to find this bratty girl, I was almost killed by the exhaustion and pain, but not only this bratty girl did not feel guilty, she even showed a look as if she didn’t care about it at all. This was really infuriating, “you still know that this is your home? Then why did you run out just now? !”
“I wanted to get some soy sauce… there is no soy sauce in the kitchen, can’t I go to get soy sauce?” Chu Yuan was lying. It was so obvious that it actually made me speechless. Then she put the newspaper on her lap and said with a sneaky smile, “why else do you think I ran out?”
“I thought you… ahem, who cares about why you left!” Fortunately, I reacted quickly. If this girl knew that I was out looking for her, she would definitely walk all over me. Excessive care was indulging and spoiling!
Chu Yuan smiled even more triumphantly, “you went to find me, you thought I ran away from home, didn’t you?”
I blushed and pretended to say with disdain, “why would I want to find you? Not wanting to listen to other people’s explanations, and making Liusu so embarrassed, even if you really did run away, I would not look for you. It is all because I have spoiled you too much that you have developed such a bad habit! Humph…”
“Lair!” Chu Yuan raised her eyebrows, stood up directly from the sofa, pointed at my nose condescendingly, and said, “you didn’t go out to look for me? So why did you stay outside for such a long time?”
Facing Chu Yuan’s questioning, there was an inexplicable guilty feeling in my heart. But I forced myself to lie to her, “see Liusu out.”
“Does it take that long to see her out?” Chu Yuan sneered, “Also, just look at yourself in the mirror, you are sweating like a pig. What? Were you worried that I would run away from home?”
When she said the last sentence, it sounded like she was very proud of herself, although I didn’t know why she would feel proud, “I am sweating because of the heat. Moreover, have I been out for a long time? I was merrily chatting with your elder sister Cheng while waiting for the bus downstairs, I didn’t expect that time would pass so fast…”
I refused to admit that I was worried about Chu Yuan. I felt that once I admitted it I would lose something. I knew clearly that this was not because I was an elder brother and didn’t want to spoil my little sister, but pure self-esteem.
Seeing that I was so stubborn, Chu Yuan’s face turned red in an instant. She was so angry that she suddenly raised her voice, “will you die if you stop lying!? I was following you from behind earlier, you just sent Cheng Liusu to the gate of the community and then went to look for me. I saw everything! Why can’t you just admit it!”
After she said this, both of us were stunned. Then my face also turned as red as Chu Yuan. However, this time, my face was red because of anger, but Chu Yuan’s face was red because of embarrassment.
“You secretly followed behind me?” There was no way that I wouldn’t be angry. She deliberately watched me looking for her with a limping leg!
“Mhm…” Chu Yuan’s face was like a ripe tomato. Not daring to look at me in the eyes, she lowered her head and said in a low voice, “I didn’t go anywhere after I went out. I just hid it by the stairs on the fifth floor… Don’t get me wrong! It was not that I didn’t want to leave. I just wanted to see if you cared about Cheng Liusu, that flirtatious woman, or your little sister…”
I was speechless… The more Chu Yuan tried to explain, the more she exposed her true intention. Hiding by the stairs on the fifth floor, did she really not have other intentions? And… using the word flirtatious to describe Liusu? It sounded so awkward.
Seeing me frowning, Chu Yuan hurriedly continued, “when I saw that you came out with her slowly and you didn’t look worried at all, I was very angry. I wanted to stay at Dongfang’s house for one night and make you worried, so I secretly went out after you, but after seeing Cheng Liusu get into the taxi, you immediately changed your look and became very anxious, I just…”
Couldn’t bring yourself to make me worried? So you didn’t go to Dongfang little brat’s house? I didn’t feel complacent about being able to guess Chu Yuan’s mind, but hoped that she could go to Dongfang’s house immediately after she left the house…
“I need to make it clear first, I still haven’t forgiven you. And the reason why I came back was that I couldn’t get through to Dongfang, and there was no other place that I could go to, so…” although she said so, her eyes were looking at my right leg. “Elder Brother, is your injury really bad? Elder Sister Mo told me that you were not at home today, and you went to the hospital to see a doctor. Are you worried that I would be worried, so you deliberately kept it from me?”
Thinking that Chu Yuan had already found out that I was acting, I didn’t know whether I should feel embarrassed or angry. I walked around the tea table and sat down on the sofa, shaking my head and smiling bitterly. I now faced a very difficult question.
If I told Chu Yuan now that my injury was actually a gunshot wound, I guessed that she would definitely cry in regret, because she had been watching me looking for her with a gunshot wound. But, if I didn’t say that my wound was on my thigh, how could I explain what happened earlier to her?
Alas, being a man was really hard.