Chapter 37 – Liberation and Escape

Chu Ling stayed at her son’s house for three days without any signs of leaving. Zhou Ziyi thought about it and decided to use his trump card.

That night, after President Yan finished taking a shower, he found the person who had been sharing the bed with him for three days happily bouncing on his own bed.

Bouncing like a kangaroo, like the kind of bouncing on a trampoline.

Yan Xiuzhi was astonished and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Just bouncing a little. I have to say, brother, your bed has really good elasticity. It’s so fun to bounce on it!” Zhou Ziyi replied while bouncing, “Your bed is so expensive, I hope I won’t break it by bouncing.”

“…I don’t know.” Yan Xiuzhi felt like he had gotten used to the endless antics of the other person, and now he could even resist the urge to kick him off the bed. “But if it breaks, I’ll deduct it from your pocket money.”

Zhou Ziyi: “…”

He continued to bounce cautiously.

“You’re still bouncing? Get off!” Yan Xiuzhi raised an eyebrow, “Are you a primary school student? Bouncing on the bed?”

“Hey, bouncing is just a means!” Zhou Ziyi confidently said, “I’m showing Auntie how brave you are!”

Yan Xiuzhi couldn’t keep up with his train of thought and asked, “What?”

“Ge, have you thought about it?” Zhou Ziyi said, “You are an adult, healthy male. You have been sleeping with your partner for three days. Shouldn’t there be some activity?”

Yan Xiuzhi only realized at the end that he was actually thinking about such things.

Yan Zong was speechless, “Isn’t your thinking a bit too unconventional?”

“It’s fine, right?” Zhou Ziyi said, “Ge, even if you don’t have a sex life, you still have self-comfort, right? It’s not too much to do it once every three or four days! If the interval is longer, Auntie will really start to suspect!”

“Who is discussing this with you!” Yan Xiuzhi was getting angry with him, “Even if you jump around, the people downstairs won’t hear anything. Get down from there!”

“…Huh?” Zhou Ziyi finally stopped and walked a few steps to the edge of the bed, kneeling down and looking at Yan Xiuzhi, “I used to hear banging noises from the upstairs, it should be similar to this activity, right?”

Yan Xiuzhi said, “Do you think my place is like your poorly soundproofed old neighborhood?”

“Okay, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have equated a luxury apartment with an ordinary old building,” Zhou Ziyi said, “So what should we do?”

After asking himself, he suddenly thought of something and grabbed his own pajamas, pulling open the collar, “Or, President Yan, you can bite me?”

Yan Xiuzhi was stunned by his self-questioning and self-answering, “…What?!”

“At other places, I can twist it myself, but here—” Zhou Ziyi pointed near his neck, “I can’t do it.”

Yan Xiuzhi felt his logic was absurd: “Why are you doing this again?”
“It represents our good relationship… that’s it!” Zhou Ziyi explained confidently, “This place is the easiest for Auntie to see, the most convenient. Hurry up, don’t hesitate!”

As he spoke, he stretched his neck out, like a swan ready for sacrifice. Yan Xiuzhi was exasperated by his thought process, raised his hand, and pushed his forehead back, “Calm down!”

Zhou Ziyi fell onto the bed, “Huh?”

“You don’t need to do these things.” Yan Xiuzhi felt that Zhou Ziyi was sometimes extremely unreasonable, “Even if there are no marks, my mom doesn’t have time to study our nightlife!”

Zhou Ziyi blinked on the bed, “But it’s written in the contract…”

“Showing affection in front of others means you act like a normal person, not show off like a maniac.” Yan Xiuzhi looked down at him, “So don’t do unnecessary things.”

Zhou Ziyi looked bewildered, “But you seemed to accept it when I did these things before, I thought…”

“I’m asking you to have a sense of propriety.” Yan Xiuzhi said, “It’s okay to interact in public, but don’t leave any marks on your body. Also, don’t expect me to help you leave any marks!”

Zhou Ziyi pondered for a moment, “Then can I buy a fake tooth and bite myself?”

Yan Xiuzhi: “Is this the main point?!”

“Okay, okay, I understand, I don’t have to go this far in the future, right?” Zhou Ziyi sat up and touched the back of his neck, “After all, I don’t have experience pretending to be a married couple, especially in front of an audience. It’s normal for the acting to be a bit exaggerated and not quite right.”

Suddenly, Yan Xiuzhi reached out, lightly running his finger over the young man’s exposed collarbone.

Zhou Ziyi shuddered and quickly grabbed his hand, “What are you doing?”

“I touch you lightly and you shudder, and you still want me to bite you?” Yan Xiuzhi withdrew his hand, “You overestimate yourself.”

Zhou Ziyi coughed lightly, “Well… I just wanted to gather my courage.”

Yan Xiuzhi said, “There’s no need to go to this extent. I don’t expect this from you, and you don’t need to do it on your own. I made a deal with you to fake a marriage, not to turn you into someone else. You can be more at ease.”

After hearing these words, Zhou Ziyi seemed lost in thought for a while before absentmindedly saying, “Oh…”

Yan Xiuzhi gave him space to think for himself, stopped talking, and went to deal with messages on his tablet. Zhou Ziyi sat at the end of the bed in a daze for a while, then suddenly remembered something and blurted out, “Ge!”

Yan Xiuzhi was startled by him, “Why are you shouting like that?”

“None, I just feel like we could take the opportunity today to change the bedding!” Zhou Ziyi patted the bed, “Doesn’t changing the bedding represent everything?”

“…” The young man was so persistent that Yan Xiuzhi was speechless. Having just had a heated argument, Yan Xiuzhi didn’t want to go through it again and could only say, “If you want to change, then change.”

“Then I’ll do it now.”

Zhou Ziyi got off the bed, went to open Yan Xiuzhi’s cabinet, skillfully found a four-piece set^[1]“Four-piece set” usually refers to a four-piece bedding set in people’s daily life. As the name suggests, it is a bedding set consisting of four sets. The necessary elements are a … Continue reading, and skillfully made the switch.

Yan Xiuzhi looked at the dazzling red bedding, which finally changed to a somewhat acceptable blue. The lingering feeling of annoyance in his heart finally dispersed a bit.

*
A few days later, Chu Ling, who had “run away from home,” finally returned home.

Zhou Ziyi still wasn’t very clear about the ins and outs, but he overheard Yan Xiuzhi and Chu Ling’s conversation at the dining table. It seemed like Chu’s family had caused some trouble at the Hua Hao Group, affecting Yan Wenwu’s original plans, and feeling a bit embarrassed, they called Chu Ling to come home.

As is well known, even if there is no apology after an argument, the one who speaks first is usually considered to have conceded. Chu Ling didn’t talk back much in front of Yan Wenwu, just packed her bags and went back.

The day she left, both Zhou Ziyi and Yan Xiuzhi breathed a sigh of relief.

Even though they would have to pretend to be a “couple” when they met sooner or later, President Yan, still had to put on an act when he got home. He couldn’t relax, and being a CEO was tiring enough.

Once Chu Ling left, Zhou Ziyi also felt liberated. The next day, he went to the sanatorium on the outskirts to visit Zhou Wenwen.

Since the last visit with Tang Shirong, Zhou Ziyi had started preparing for the wedding and hadn’t seen her for a long time. This time, Zhou Wenwen seemed very happy and chatted with him for a while. She even showed him a photo of the reserved dress. Zhou Ziyi didn’t really understand these dresses and just said they looked good.

Although three months later, he didn’t know how Zhou Wenwen’s health was, whether she could stand up properly, put on the dress, and take a walk.

“Ge, can I buy a set of makeup?” After showing him the dress, Zhou Wenwen looked at Zhou Ziyi with eager eyes. “My complexion is so bad now. I want to put on a full makeup when I wear the dress, to look beautiful!”

Zhou Ziyi asked, “Can you wear makeup according to the doctor?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Zhou Wenwen grabbed Zhou Ziyi’s sleeve. “I don’t need to buy it now. I’ll buy it when the dress arrives.”

Zhou Ziyi fell silent for two seconds. “Do you have something you want to buy?”

“Hehe.” Zhou Wenwen was embarrassed when he hit the nail on the head and smiled. “Yes… I’ll send it to you later, okay?”

Zhou Ziyi’s mood, how should I put it, was still quite calm.

As expected.

When Zhou Wenwen wants to buy something, it’s basically the same routine. When her parents were still alive, Zhou Wenwen would be more assertive. Now, she can only ask Zhou Ziyi for money, and she does it more subtly. However, because this girl has been hospitalized since she was young and her social environment is simple, it’s still easy for her to reveal her true intentions in front of her older brother.

Zhou Ziyi wanted to sigh, but he never showed negative emotions in front of Zhou Wenwen.

Wenwen needs to rest well and not be subjected to more stimulation.

So, even though Zhou Ziyi knew that this set of cosmetics wouldn’t be cheap, he still agreed.

“Fine.”

*

“Ziyi, I think you should tell Wenwen some things.”
On the way back from the sanatorium, Tang Shirong, who was driving, couldn’t help but say, “Even if you don’t talk about you and Lao Yan, at least talk about the debt, right?”

“What’s the use of saying it?” Zhou Ziyi glanced at him. “Can she repay 50 million, or can she ask the creditor to extend the repayment time for a few more years?”

“Even though she can’t, at least she won’t keep asking you for money!” Tang Shirong snorted. “She still acts like the young lady she used to be, always wanting this and that, and the things she wants aren’t cheap.”

Zhou Ziyi chuckled when he heard this. “Brother Tang, is this about money for you?”

“For me it doesn’t matter, but it may not be the same for you now,” Tang Shirong said, “I just feel that you spoil your sister too much. In the past, your family was well off, spoiling a little girl was like water off a duck’s back^[2]“Like water off a duck’s back”. It’s a common saying meaning something has no effect on a person or situation., but isn’t the situation different now?”

After a pause, Tang Shirong couldn’t help but speak his mind: “I think Wenwen may not be unaware of your current difficulties. She might have already guessed that you have problems, but she’s afraid that clarifying things will disrupt the current life. So, she might want to escape reality, not wanting to face a more difficult environment, deliberately asking you for this and that, using it to numb herself, pretending that her life is still the same as before.”

“Perhaps,” Zhou Ziyi self-mockingly smiled, “if one could escape, who wouldn’t want to escape?”

The Zhou family was originally a happy and harmonious family, and Zhou Ziyi and Zhou Wenwen had a good family environment since they were young. As they grew up, they saw the family becoming more and more prosperous, and their parents were never stingy with the material conditions for the two children. Especially for Wenwen, who had been ill since childhood, she was given whatever she wanted.

However, everything was destroyed in that car accident.

Zhou Ziyi’s parents passed away on the spot after the accident, and Zhou Ziyi hurried back to handle everything, only to find that the family business was complicated. What’s worse is that their parents were planning to expand the business recently and had accumulated a total external debt of fifty million, including company and personal loans, with unlimited joint liability for the company. After sorting out the family’s affairs, Zhou Ziyi didn’t manage to recover much of the inheritance but instead uncovered a heap of debts.
Moreover, with the parents’ accident, a large number of business operations in the company came to a standstill. Zhou Ziyi was overwhelmed by the external debts at the time and didn’t have the time to start learning to manage the company from scratch, so he simply sold it. The majority of the family’s previous possessions, such as houses, cars, and gold jewelry, were also sold. However, this only covered a small portion of the debts, and Zhou Ziyi had to continue to work hard.

On Wenwen’s side, the death of her parents had already caused her a great deal of distress. Zhou Ziyi really didn’t dare to tell her about the pile of debts, fearing that Wenwen would think that there was no money left for treatment, leading to despair and possibly even suicidal thoughts.

Zhou Ziyi only told her that there were some debts at home, and most of the assets had been sold to repay the debts. Zhou Wenwen looked at those contracts and IOUs. Although she didn’t completely understand them, she chose to believe and not ask.

Now, Zhou Wenwen has become someone who wants to live as she did before, escaping from reality.

Zhou Ziyi knows this is not good, but he doesn’t know what to do to make it right.

Let’s just endure it like this.

Wait until the day when we can’t endure it anymore…

Tang Shirong saw that he was thinking deeply, so he decided to change the subject.

“Sheffield, who want to bought you a million dollars for a year, came to China, do you know that?”