Paper Lover At Old Town Bookstore Chapter 29
bypanic and run away
Just as I was about to explain the stalking, Lin Zhiqing suddenly slapped his thigh and his eyes widened: “Wait! I remembered something!”
He came up to me and said with a certain certainty in his tone: “When you were in school, you always received anonymous snacks and review materials. Sometimes it was your favorite strawberry cake, and sometimes it was a mock paper that the teacher didn’t give out. At that time, you thought it was from a girl who had a crush on you, right?”
I was stunned and nodded – those anonymous gifts had indeed been with me for most of my adolescence. At that time, I just regarded them as the wishes of my classmates and didn’t delve too deeply into them.
“What kind of girl is this!” Lin Zhiqing lowered his voice and said mysteriously, “One time I went to my grandpa’s house and saw my second uncle making strawberry cake for you in the kitchen. He also told Ma Zhang, ‘Don’t let Qiu Sheng know that I made it’! He also asked my head teacher to pass on those review materials to you, and he specifically told me to keep them confidential!”
These words were like a thunder, making my brain buzz.
Lin Zhiqing was still minding his own business and added: “At that time, I was still wondering why my second uncle was so interested in you. Now that I think about it… why does he like you to snatch Xu Xingruo? He clearly…” He swallowed his words and looked at me with complicated eyes, “Brother Song, your second uncle, I am afraid that your thoughts have not been on Xu Xingruo since a long time ago.”
I froze in place, and the neglected details of my adolescence were connected in an instant – Song Zhili’s complicated eyes occasionally looked at me, the antipyretics he secretly delivered when he was sick, the hot coffee that always happened to appear in the office during overtime… It turned out that those “coincidences” were all secret thoughts that he had hidden for many years.
A chill suddenly ran down my back, and I finally understood his paranoia and madness tonight – he was never for Xu Xingruo, he was afraid that I would be snatched away by anyone, even the person I wanted to protect.
The black car parked in the shadow of the apartment downstairs. Song Zhili rubbed the screen of his mobile phone with his fingertips, his eyes fixed on the lighted window on the second floor, and there was an undercurrent of paranoia in his eyes.
He clicked on the dialog box with the private detective and tapped the keyboard with his fingertips. Every word contained an unquestionable order: “Keep an eye on Song Qiusheng. From now on, don’t let him have alone contact with anyone – especially Xu Xingruo and Yang Changwen.”
After sending it, he remembered the way Lin Zhiqing was protecting Song Qiusheng in the apartment just now, his brows suddenly tightened, and he added: “In addition, arrange for Lin Zhiqing to move out immediately. No matter what method is used, he will be moved out of that apartment within three days, and he is not allowed to share with Song Qiusheng again.”
Pressing the send button, he threw the phone on the passenger seat, his knuckles turning white from the force.The light outside the car window reflected on his face, half bright and half dark, like the thoughts he had hidden for many years, half restrained protection and half crazy possession.
“Qiu Sheng,” he murmured in a low voice, with an almost pathological stubbornness in his voice, “since you can’t see clearly my feelings for you, then I will help you clear all obstacles.” He wanted to make Song Qiu Sheng the only one left in his world – no Xu Xingruo, no Yang Changwen, and no one like Lin Zhiqing who knew the inside story.
The engine restarted, and the black car quietly merged into the night. But upstairs in the apartment, I was unaware that a tighter confinement was quietly coming.
At dawn the next day, I packed my luggage almost as if I was running away. Ignoring the pain in my ankle that had not yet healed, I drove straight to the branch in a neighboring city.
Last night’s farce was like a ridiculous nightmare. Song Zhili’s paranoia, Lin Zhiqing’s revelations, and the plot that completely went off the rails all made my scalp numb. If I stay at the head office any longer, there might be some outrageous plot.
Preparations for the opening of the branch were already in place, and the employees were a little surprised when they saw me arriving in the dusty early morning.
I suppressed the chaos in my heart and quickly got into work mode, holding meetings, checking processes, and checking details, trying to numb myself with intensive work and temporarily escape the whirlpool of right and wrong in the head office.
But when his fingertips were tapping on the keyboard, Xu Xingruo’s red eyes, Yang Changwen’s sinister eyes, and Song Zhili’s kiss on the door always flashed uncontrollably in his mind.
I don’t even dare to think deeply about whether Lin Zhiqing will really be forced to move out, whether Xu Xingruo will be entangled by Yang Changwen in the head office, and whether Song Zhili will do something extreme.
The salute of the opening ceremony was sounded at ten o’clock in the morning, ribbons were flying all over the sky, and the guests toasted with congratulations, creating a lively scene.I stood on the stage with a decent smile on my face, but my heart was cold.This seemingly beautiful sit-in, to me, is more like an embarrassing escape.