Chapter 94: Wait for Me to Return

The walk-in closet had a door leading directly into the bedroom. While holding the cat, Lin Hexi quietly stepped back out and glanced toward the adjacent room.

The bedroom door was still slightly ajar, and You Chong hadn’t come out yet. Lin Hexi closed the closet door tightly, nudged the Alaskan Malamute—who was rubbing itself enthusiastically against his legs—toward the staircase, and then sat down on the stairs, still holding the orange cat, waiting.

A few seconds later, the sound of You Chong emerging from the bedroom reached his ears.

Lin Hexi released the cat, stood up from the stairs, and turned thoughtfully to look at You Chong.

You Chong handed the pajamas to him, his expression calm as he asked, “What’s wrong?”

For a moment, Lin Hexi found himself at a loss for words.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed the changes in You Chong compared to before. Compared to three years ago, You Chong had become increasingly difficult to read—most likely a result of his current work and status.

The saying “seeing is believing” didn’t seem to apply to You Chong. Just when Lin Hexi thought he was close to uncovering the truth, You Chong’s actions would subtly remind him that what he believed to be real might not be.

Just when Lin Hexi began to believe in You Chong’s behavior, something unchanging would always surface, hinting that perhaps the situation might still take an unexpected turn—that maybe he shouldn’t give up the hopes lingering deep in his heart too soon.

Lin Hexi swallowed the questions that hovered on the tip of his tongue, and decided not to ask after all.

That night, nothing else happened. After taking a shower, Lin Hexi returned to the guest bedroom and went to sleep. Once the lights in his room went out, You Chong, still holding his laptop, headed upstairs as well.

It was a night without dreams.

The next morning, Lin Hexi was awakened by You Chong’s knock at the door. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, and washed his face before stepping out of the room. When he did, he saw two breakfasts neatly laid out on the dining table.

He pulled out a chair, sat down, and cradled the bowl of porridge in his hands as he began to eat.

You Chong had already finished his meal. He glanced up at Lin Hexi and said, “I’ll drive you back to the hotel.”

Lin Hexi didn’t refuse. He simply nodded and added, “If you’re not in a rush to get to work.”

Just as You Chong was about to say something else, the sudden ringing of his phone interrupted him.

You Chong didn’t leave the room to take the call. Instead, he picked up the phone from the table and answered it right there. From the scattered words, it was easy to tell that it was a work-related call.

Lin Hexi set down his bowl, unable to resist glancing at You Chong. When his gaze fell on the phone in You Chong’s hand, he paused—it wasn’t the same phone You Chong had used at the hotel that day.

During the few seconds it took him to process this, You Chong had already ended the call. Noticing that Lin Hexi’s gaze had lingered on him a bit too long, You Chong silently returned the look with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

After meeting his gaze, Lin Hexi asked, “You have two phones?”

Thinking back to the day at the hotel when You Chong saved his number, Lin Hexi assumed he had misunderstood, believing the phone used then was just a secondary one. You Chong explained, “This is my work phone, and that one is my personal phone.”

Lin Hexi nodded slowly. “You use this phone to contact foreign clients?”

Not quite understanding the purpose of the question, You Chong raised his eyebrows slightly. “Yes.”

Lin Hexi glanced at his own phone, which was also lying on the table. Gradually, it dawned on him—You Chong probably hadn’t realized that his phone was set to block all overseas calls.

And just like that, breakfast ended in a series of fragmented, inconclusive conversations.

The two of them headed out to the parking lot. As the elevator descended from the upper floors, neither You Chong nor Lin Hexi spoke. Silence stretched between them until, midway through the descent, the elevator stopped and two other residents from the same building entered, breaking the long quiet.

The two middle-aged women appeared to be acquaintances, chatting away about gossip as they stepped inside.

The woman on the left, without any concern for the presence of others in the elevator, bluntly asked, “Did you hear about what happened with the household downstairs?”

“The divorce case?” The woman on the right waved her hand dismissively. “I think everyone in the whole community knows about it by now.”

“I just got back yesterday,” the one on the left lowered her voice. “I heard the wife ran off with a foreigner?”

“Yes, it’s really a shame,” the woman on the right sighed. “She left her husband and two kids behind and went abroad.”

The woman on the left was about to ask more, but just then, the elevator doors opened on the first floor, and the two women stopped their conversation as they stepped out.

The doors closed again, and the elevator resumed its descent to the underground parking level.

Lin Hexi wasn’t interested in the gossip of strangers. When he glanced up at the numbers on the elevator display, however, he unexpectedly met You Chong’s gaze.

His eyelid twitched slightly as he sensed a subtle shift in the air between them. But he kept his expression composed, openly meeting You Chong’s gaze.

Yet in the next moment, You Chong had already looked away, as if that glance had been nothing more than Lin Hexi’s imagination.

You Chong drove him to the entrance of the hotel. As Lin Hexi hesitated, wondering whether to return the clothes now, You Chong spoke first. “I’ll be traveling out of town for a few days. I’ll be back in a week—I’ll get the clothes from you then.”

At that moment, he figured You Chong would still be in the country, so Lin Hexi agreed.

After returning to the hotel, Lin Hexi received an email from a colleague, informing him that they would be flying to China next Tuesday. The email also included detailed flight information.

Lin Hexi replied, confirming that he would go to the airport to pick them up. After sending the response, he began contemplating how to arrange a meeting with Zhou Xuan.

A few hours later, he obtained Zhou Xuan’s phone number from the hotel’s duty manager.

However, over the next two days, Lin Hexi stayed at the hotel, busy with work, and never found the right moment to make the call.

On Tuesday evening, Lin Hexi went to the airport to pick up his American colleague. 

While waiting, he received a call from You Chong, who said over the phone, “The watch is repaired. I’ll send you the address—you can go pick it up directly.”

In truth, Lin Hexi didn’t particularly care whether the watch was fixed or not.

It was just an ordinary watch he had bought abroad and only worn a few times during his travels. After discovering it was broken, he had simply stuffed it into his suitcase and never bothered to take it out again.

Had he not unpacked his suitcase when returning to the country, he likely would have forgotten that there was a broken watch tucked away inside.

After thanking You Chong, Lin Hexi found an empty seat at the airport and sat down. He didn’t specify when he would go pick up the watch. “Just tell me the name of the shop,” he said.

You Chong gave the full name of the store, carefully spelling out the exact characters for him.

Just then, a boarding announcement echoed through the airport, drowning out part of You Chong’s voice over the phone.

Lin Hexi didn’t catch it clearly and asked again, “Which characters?”

But You Chong’s voice abruptly fell silent. Amid faint static on the line, even his breathing seemed to grow agitated and uneven. Instead of repeating the shop’s name, You Chong’s voice turned heavy with anger, as if his emotions had suddenly spiraled out of control. He bit out each word with a low, tense growl, “Where are you?”

It was the most unguarded expression of emotion Lin Hexi had heard from You Chong since returning to the country.

Lin Hexi froze, baffled by the sudden shift in You Chong’s mood and unable to make sense of what had triggered it.

Hearing no response from Lin Hexi, You Chong’s voice grew louder. “I asked you—where are you right now?!”

“I’m at the airport—” Lin Hexi began to say.

But You Chong cut him off sharply, his tone urgent. “What are you doing at the airport?”

“I’m here to—” Lin Hexi tried to explain.

Once again, You Chong interrupted him, his voice full of anger. “You’re leaving? Are you planning to fly back to the U.S. without saying a word again?!”

Lin Hexi’s expression showed his surprise—he hadn’t expected You Chong to jump to such a conclusion.

Instead of rushing to explain himself, Lin Hexi paused and decided to use this moment to test You Chong. He went along with the situation, choosing to remain silent.

As the silence dragged on, without any explanation or denial from Lin Hexi, You Chong took it as tacit confirmation. After forcing himself to calm down, he battled with the simmering anger in his chest, accompanied by a slowly spreading sense of unease.

He thought back to the time Lin Hexi had fished the watch out of the hot spring and lied that it was a hotel key card. Even then, he hadn’t exposed the lie.

After their initial mutual testing, Lin Hexi had abruptly changed his mind and pulled out another watch from his suitcase. Although You Chong had been angry at the time, he still chose not to expose the truth.

There were unresolved issues between them—things from the past that they had never openly discussed. Time might be willing to wait for him, but Lin Hexi wouldn’t wait any longer.

In truth, You Chong hadn’t been certain that news of his supposed marriage would bring Lin Hexi back. 

Yet, when he deliberately spread that news, Lin Hexi did return after all.

But this time, he had used fake news of his marriage to lure Lin Hexi back to the country. What about next time? What else could he use to bring him back?

This return took place three years later. The next time might be five years from now, or even ten.

The journey from the U.S. to the country was merely a matter of crossing the Pacific—just a flight of a dozen or so hours. What truly kept people tied down was never the distance across the ocean, but the work, friends, and perhaps even family they had built in a foreign land.

Lin Hexi had long severed ties with the Lin family. Perhaps, to him, whether he returned to the country or not no longer mattered.

You Chong gripped his phone tightly, and at last, he spoke to the person on the other end of the call. “Wait for me to come back.”

He spoke slowly, enunciating each word with clarity: “I have questions to ask you, and I have things I need to say to you.”