Chapter 27: Extinguished Affection

Chu Zhiqing harbored a fondness for Fu Yuzhou. Seeing him suddenly appear before her, her pretty face flushed with nervousness.

She hadn’t even figured out how to greet him when Fu Yuzhou’s icy words fell from above.

“Comrade Chu, I know you’re literate and educated, but your education shouldn’t be used to help others write self-criticisms.

This is a shortcut, and you’ll harm my soldiers. I train them not only in physical skills, but also hope they’ll be cultured.

So, if I find you helping them write self-criticisms behind my back again, I won’t let you off lightly!”

His last sentence was particularly heavy, like a huge rock crashing down on Chu Zhiqing’s heart.

It completely extinguished Chu Zhiqing’s ardent affection for Fu Yuzhou.

Chu Zhiqing nervously swallowed, her heart trembling as she asked Fu Yuzhou, “Are you angry with me?”

Fu Yuzhou, a rough man who didn’t understand tenderness, bluntly replied, “Yes, I’m quite angry.”

His bluntness made Chu Zhiqing extremely upset.

“They all say you like me. I want to know, do you like me or not?”

If he liked her, why would he criticize her in the cafeteria, a public place, humiliating her in front of everyone?

“I don’t like you. It’s a misunderstanding. I’m clarifying this to you today, and I hope you won’t try to please me again.

I’ll have my guard, Comrade Zhu, return the local products you gave me!”

After hearing this, Chu Zhiqing was shocked, realizing she had been dreaming all along. This abstinent and cold battalion commander didn’t like her at all.

She had been harboring unrequited love. But she felt wronged and cried out, “If you don’t like me, you shouldn’t have gone 20 kilometers to pick me up.”

Leaving this sentence behind, Chu Zhiqing ran off.

Fu Yuzhou stood there dumbfounded. Had he been wrong to speak the truth?

As Fu Yuzhou started walking, Wang Fengxian appeared beside him.

“Battalion Commander Fu.”

“Mm.”

Fu Yuzhou responded curtly.

“Where’s Fu Chen? Why didn’t you bring him to eat?”

Fu Chen again?

Fu Yuzhou found it strange. He had never mentioned Fu Chen to Chu Ning, so how did she come to impersonate his cousin?

Being misunderstood repeatedly by these people, constantly having Fu Chen brought up, was incredibly frustrating!

“He went back.”

Wang Fengxian was startled. “Back? He just came over the day before yesterday. Why did he go back? I even specially asked the chef for a chicken leg, planning to give it to him. He’s so frail.

No wonder you wanted to bring him to the militia camp for training. His physique really needs training, otherwise, getting married and having children will be difficult.”

Fu Yuzhou’s head ached. Wang Fengxian’s nosiness was boundless, even meddling in other people’s childbearing plans.

“Director, you seem to have a lot of free time?”

Fu Yuzhou’s tone was clearly colder.

“Not really, but I just wanted to care more about Fu Chen, to know why he suddenly went back. Could it be that he’s going back to get married?”

Married?

Fu Yuzhou’s gaze darkened.

He asked Wang Fengxian with a cold expression, “Did Fu Chen tell you he’s going back to get married?”

“No, I just chatted with him yesterday, casually asking if he was married, and he told me his family had arranged a marriage for him.”

Chu Ning’s family arranged a marriage for her?

Fu Yuzhou’s heart sank.

She had gone to great lengths to flirt with him, finding a way to go back, just to get married?

Fu Yuzhou felt a sudden tightness in his chest, a suffocating feeling.

Since her family had arranged a marriage, why did she flirt with him so much?

A woman who does that is simply shameless!

“Her marriage has nothing to do with me. Don’t ask me about Fu Chen again, and don’t mention his name to me.”

Fu Yuzhou coldly warned Wang Fengxian.

He was thoroughly sick of the name Fu Chen and that woman Chu Ning.

They repeatedly stirred up his emotions, they were troublemakers!

•  

Achoo.

Chu Ning sneezed countless times that morning, incessantly.

Her mother brought in some nourishing soup. “Ningning, you have a cold. Drink this chicken soup I made, and I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Chu Ning knew better than anyone that she wasn’t sick.

“Mom, don’t be so worried, I’m not sick.”

“You saying so doesn’t count, a doctor needs to check you.”

Chu Ning was speechless. Her mother had always doted on her and tended to overreact.

Chu Ning said, “I have something important to do today, I don’t have time to go to the hospital.”

Her mother thought she was referring to breaking off the engagement with the Zhou family, and honestly said, “Don’t worry about breaking off the engagement. Your father and brother went to the Zhou family early this morning.”

Chu Ning had already expressed her intention to break off the engagement and wasn’t surprised at all that her father and brother had gone to the Zhou family.

“That’s not what I’m talking about. I need to return the apartment I rented.”

After being awakened by a nightmare last night, Chu Ning hadn’t slept well. Regardless of whether Fu Yuzhou would come looking for her, she just wanted to return the apartment.

Her mother didn’t know why Chu Ning wanted to return the apartment and said warmly, “Child, you don’t need to return the apartment. I’ve bought it in your name. It’s your own apartment now.”

The Chu family had opposed Chu Ning’s marriage to Zhou Chenhao from the beginning, but Chu Ning had insisted.

Because of this, she had fallen out with her family.

After getting engaged to Zhou Chenhao, Chu Ning hadn’t gone home.

She also didn’t accept help from her family.

After learning that her daughter had fallen out with Zhou Chenhao and was renting an apartment, Chu’s mother, knowing her daughter’s strong pride and unwillingness to accept her help, secretly bought the apartment she liked and rented it to Chu Ning through an agency.

Chu Ning didn’t know about this. Hearing her mother’s words, she was shocked. “Mom, there are so many apartments in Beijing, why did you choose that one to buy for me?”

Chu’s mother looked innocent. “Didn’t you like that apartment?”

Because Chu Ning wanted to rent it, her mother secretly bought it.

Chu Ning felt like crying. When did she like that apartment? It was just that Zhou Chenhao had shattered her mindset.

That apartment was far from Zhou Chenhao’s home, and the environment was relatively quiet.

She admitted that when she first moved in, she had wanted to live there permanently, but now she was filled with fear.

She didn’t want to live in that “haunted house” anymore.

But her own mother had bought that “haunted house” for her!

Chu Ning was utterly distraught.

Chu Ning was a woman of her word. Once she made a decision, she didn’t want to change it. So what if it had become her apartment?

She could just resell it.

So Chu Ning got the property certificate from her mother and went to a real estate agency to list it for sale.

At the agency, she learned that the apartment was indeed a haunted house, not only had various people lived there, but someone had also died there.

Chu Ning immediately argued with the real estate agent, demanding a full refund.

The real estate agency in the community didn’t easily let go of the haunted house and would rather risk a lawsuit than agree to Chu Ning’s request.

Chu Ning wasn’t a pushover either. She had Tang Siqi find a lawyer from her circle, while she went home to take photos and gather evidence, preparing to sue the real estate agency.

Perhaps because of last night’s nightmare, Chu Ning felt uneasy while taking the elevator upstairs to collect evidence.

She was afraid that when she opened the door, she would see Fu Yuzhou’s icy face.

Sure enough, the moment she opened the door, she saw an unwelcome guest.