Chapter 164: I Didn't Expect That Either

Lu Fengzhou must have noticed Qiao Jiu's lack of genuine engagement, as he let out a slight sigh from the other end. "Of course I am at the hotel."

"Oh, I see." Qiao Jiu stirred the noodles in the pot. "At the hotel, then. Have you eaten yet?"

Small talk always revolved around food and drink; you could never go wrong with those.

Lu Fengzhou said he hadn't.

Qiao Jiu put on a false air of concern. "Still haven't eaten? What time is it now? Alright, alright, go get something to eat then. I won't disturb you any longer."

Lu Fengzhou held the phone in silence. Qiao Jiu waited for a moment, and finding herself completely unable to come up with any more topics to ramble about, she simply hung up without further ado.

After finishing the noodles and returning to the dining table to sit down, she finally remembered that Lu Fengzhou had mentioned returning tomorrow. Logically speaking, she should have asked what time he would arrive.

She sighed, genuinely too detached to care, having completely forgotten about that detail.

She leisurely finished her meal and turned on the television, leaving the sound off as she curled up on the sofa and scrolled through her phone.

Before long, she saw that Guan Wei had updated her Moments. The girl must have gone on a trip, as she posted a photo of the seaside.

There was no caption, and Guan Wei herself did not appear in the picture.

Qiao Jiu liked the post and commented that she was living a comfortable life.

Yet, whether she was truly comfortable or not, everyone knew the truth in their hearts.

Qiao Jiu was WeChat friends with Liang Xiujin, but there was no trace of him in the comment section; she wondered if Guan Wei had blocked him.

When the time was right, Qiao Jiu went back to her bedroom to sleep.

As per usual, she fell into a bout of wild daydreaming right before dozing off, and her mind wandered quite a bit.

If Lu Fengzhou's parents had genuinely suffered illegal persecution during the land acquisition case, and her own father had a hand in that persecution, how were the two of them supposed to settle that score?

Everything Lu Fengzhou had done to her in the past suddenly seemed to have a justifiable reason, and it also seemed entirely forgivable.

She didn't want to bring up the notion that sins should not be visited upon the children. Her father had made a fortune back then, allowing her to live these past dozen years in such carefree ease. Having accepted the grace of that privilege, she naturally had to bear the responsibility that came with it.

Tossing and turning for quite a while without reaching any conclusion, she felt a stifling heaviness in her chest. For a fleeting moment, she wished there were no such entanglements between them at all—that the man had simply set his sights on her family's wealth and ruthlessly trampled on her to climb to the top.

Eventually, she drifted off to sleep in a haze.

She woke up rather late the next day, her temples throbbing with pain and her chest feeling blocked and heavy.

Even though she had been fast asleep the entire night, a glance in the mirror revealed dark circles under her eyes and a rather poor complexion.

Her mind, however, was much clearer now, and she systematically overturned everything she had pondered the previous night.

Even if Lu Fengzhou's family had suffered persecution, it wasn't necessarily her father who did it. Her father hadn't fled like Liu Changyong, which showed his conscience was clear.

A sneaky, petty villain like Lu Fengzhou probably couldn't find Liu Changyong to take his revenge on, and thus vented his anger on her father instead.

Besides, when the incident happened back then, they hadn't made a big fuss, choosing instead to keep quiet, lower their heads, and accept a massive compensation payout. To come back and rake up old coals more than a decade later made no sense no matter how one looked at it.

Thinking along these lines instantly restored a lot of her confidence. Qiao Jiu hurriedly washed up, applied an exquisite layer of makeup, and, having no time to cook for herself, went out to grab a quick bite.

Sitting in the breakfast shop, Qiao Jiu scrolled through her phone, mainly hoping to see if there were any updates from Lu Fengzhou's end.

As it turned out, there was nothing at all.

After a moment of hesitation, she ultimately dismissed the impulse to contact him.

After eating, she returned to the company. There was a routine meeting on Monday morning, followed by a departmental sub-meeting, and she stayed busy right up until nearly noon.

With a dizzy head and a splitting headache, Qiao Jiu walked back to her office carrying a massive stack of documents.

She pushed the door open without paying much mind to anything else and made her way straight to her desk to sit down.

Dropping the documents onto the desk, she stretched lazily and let out a long sigh.

Yet before that sigh had even fully escaped, her gaze shifted, and she caught sight of someone sitting on the small sofa not far away. She was startled so badly that her whole body jerked.

That person sat with crossed legs, staring at her with a half-smile playing on his lips.

Qiao Jiu slowly retracted the arm she had stretched out, stood up with wide eyes, and demanded, "When did you get in?"

Lu Fengzhou also stood up and walked toward her. "I've been here a while. Your meeting lasted quite a long time."

Qiao Jiu blinked. "When did you get back?"

"I've been back since early this morning." Lu Fengzhou walked right up to her, reached out, and pinched her cheek. "And you didn't even think to ask me."

Qiao Jiu slightly turned her head to pull her face free. "I'm a grown adult, and I'm not going to get lost. What is there to ask?"

These were the exact words Lu Fengzhou had once said to her. Back when he went on business trips, Qiao Jiu would call him one after another, annoying him to no end.

Unable to bear it any longer, he had lost his temper, impatiently telling her to stop endlessness and asking what on earth she wanted with a phone call every few minutes.

Qiao Jiu remembered how aggrieved she had felt back then, telling him she only called because she was worried about him.

Lu Fengzhou's reply had been precisely those words, without a single syllable altered.

Lu Fengzhou withdrew his hand and, after a long pause, said, "It was my fault."

It was unclear whether that remark was a summary of the present moment or of the past.

Qiao Jiu sat back down. "Did you come looking for me for something? It's Monday—isn't your company busy?"

Lu Fengzhou pulled over a nearby chair and sat down as well. "Not busy. I lost two projects in a row, so I'm quite idle."

Qiao Jiu put on a look of astonishment. "You actually managed to lose projects? That's really hard to imagine."

Lu Fengzhou gave a light chuckle. "I couldn't imagine it either."

Without looking at him, Qiao Jiu feigned busines as she flipped through the documents in her hands, her tone laced with banter. "Does General Manager Liang know you're here? He's so trusting to let you hang out in my office like this, not even worried that our own projects might get lost."

Lu Fengzhou chuckled. "Your General Manager Liang invited me in. Rest assured, he isn't that petty-minded."

Qiao Jiu glanced up at him from the corner of her eye. "By the way, where on earth did you go for this business trip? You left on Sunday and came back after staying just a single day. I'm starting to suspect you were just making things up to me."

Lu Fengzhou paused for a moment before replying, "Rest assured, when I go out, I naturally take care of proper business."

He was truly skilled at playing word games. She wondered if everyone who lingered in the business world for too long ended up this way—evading the point and talking in circles; anyone with a slightly muddled mind would surely get wrapped around his finger.

Pretending not to notice, Qiao Jiu refrained from asking anything further.

As it was almost noon, Lu Fengzhou simply didn't leave, announcing that he would wait here for her to go to lunch together.

Qiao Jiu didn't refuse and went back to handling the matters at hand on her own.

Before long, the office door was pushed open, and Liang Xiucheng walked in with some documents. "Xiao Jiu, there's a matter here that needs to be handled. I've marked all the points for you, you can first..."

His voice trailed off as he caught sight of Lu Fengzhou sitting in front of the desk. "Mr. Lu, when did you arrive?"

With a lazy posture, Lu Fengzhou half-turned to look at him. "I've been here half the day. I was right here while you were all in the meeting."

Liang Xiucheng pressed his lips together, nodded slightly, and walked over to hand the documents to Qiao Jiu. "If there's anything you don't understand, just ask me. It's not very urgent; just get it done by this afternoon."

Qiao Jiu took them and murmured, "Alright, I understand."

Liang Xiucheng didn't leave immediately. "Lunch together?"

"Sure." Qiao Jiu turned to look at Lu Fengzhou. "Since Mr. Lu happens to be here, shall we make it together?"

Lu Fengzhou didn't seem to mind. "Fine by me. Should we call your Young Manager Liang along as well?"