As soon as Su Tang entered the house, she saw Ren Qingzhou's suitcase in the hallway. He had quietly returned from the imperial capital.
This really caught her off guard. But then she thought that he might be trying to surprise her.
"Zhouzhou, you're back?" Su Tang called out his name, but there was no response. She felt a bit strange.
She then remembered that he had been overworking lately and might be exhausted. So she quietly moved her own suitcase to the bedroom first.
Just as she was about to go and check if he was sleeping, she noticed Ren Qingzhou sitting on the sofa in the corner of the living room.
It was already evening, but the lights in the living room were off. He was hidden in the corner, so Su Tang didn't notice him at first.
Su Tang thought he was acting a bit strangely and couldn't help asking him, "What are you hiding there for? Why didn't you answer me when I called you earlier?"
Ren Qingzhou actually heard the sound of her opening the door. At that moment, a lot of thoughts flashed through his mind. He didn't know how to tell her what he had seen today.
He was so deep in thought that he forgot to greet her.
It wasn't until he heard her talking to him that he came back to his senses.
"I was just thinking about work. I got a bit distracted for a moment."
Su Tang didn't notice his abnormality and continued, "Have you had dinner? My mom gave me a lot of local specialties from our hometown. I'll cook them for you tonight."
Only then did Ren Qingzhou notice the several bags in her hand. They must have been specially brought by Su's mom.
Watching her go to the kitchen as she spoke, Ren Qingzhou also stood up and followed her.
"Don't go to so much trouble. It's getting late. Let's just go out and eat something. We can cook those tomorrow."
Hearing this, Su Tang first put the ingredients in the fridge. "Okay. Then let's get ready to go out."
Ren Qingzhou thought for a while and decided to ask clearly, "You brought back quite a lot of things this time when you went home. It must have been quite tiring on the way, right?"
His words were clearly hinting that he wanted Su Tang to voluntarily tell him about the man who was with her on the way.
But Su Tang didn't understand the implication. "It's okay. These things aren't that heavy."
"Didn't you meet anyone when you went home this time, or..." Ren Qingzhou felt that he was almost about to directly ask who the man he saw with her at the airport was.
But he thought it would be very ungentlemanly if he asked directly.
Moreover, what if that man was Su Tang's relative? If he was so petty, wouldn't he seem very narrow - minded?
"No. Who could I possibly meet?"
Su Tang's answer made Ren Qingzhou very dissatisfied. It seemed that the man was probably not a relative of her family.
If he was a relative, why would she need to hide it?
"Think again. Is there anything you want to share with me?" Ren Qingzhou continued to prompt.
Even if Su Tang was slow - witted, she could hear the meaning in his words.
For a moment, she hesitated whether she should tell him about Fang Haoran.
It didn't seem right to keep it from him like this, but how should she start?
She couldn't just say that her mom insisted on her going on a blind date.
Su Tang gritted her teeth and decided to continue hiding it. "There really isn't anything special. You've been to my hometown before. It's just a small city. What interesting things could happen there?"
After hearing this, Ren Qingzhou said, "I saw you at the airport this afternoon. But seeing that you were quite busy, I didn't go up to say hello."
His tone had changed. It was no longer the kind and inquiring tone as before.
Su Tang didn't know how to respond, nor did she know how to cover up her previous lie.
She was actually not good at lying. Since childhood, her mom had taught her to be an honest person.
She also didn't like people who told lies all the time, but recently she seemed to be constantly hiding things from others.
For a moment, Su Tang really wanted to call her mom and tell her, "Stop introducing blind - date partners to me. I already have a boyfriend."
Of course, she also really wanted to tell Ren Qingzhou everything about Fang Haoran.
It would definitely be much easier, right? Now she was caught in the middle, like a sandwich, and it was really too painful.
"Do you have some misunderstanding? I was bumped into by a little kid at the airport today. Fortunately, a kind - hearted person helped me up, or I would have fallen."
"That person even hurt his wrist because of helping me. I wanted to take him to the hospital, but he refused."
Ren Qingzhou didn't say anything more about her explanation. He asked, "Is the injury serious? Did you leave his contact information? In case there are any problems later, we can still take him to the hospital."
"It seems that it's not a big deal. Thankfully, it was just a scare, so I didn't leave his contact information."
At this point, Ren Qingzhou felt a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Tiantian. I apologize to you."
He had been angry about this for a whole evening, but it turned out to be just a beautiful misunderstanding.
"It's okay. It's just a misunderstanding. It's good that we've cleared it up." Su Tang accepted the apology, but she felt a bit guilty.
"You've been busy all day. Let me cook for you." Ren Qingzhou decided to make up for his mistake.
"Then I'll take a shower. I'm really tired today." Su Tang didn't stand on ceremony with him.
The ingredients she brought back might have a special purpose, so Ren Qingzhou didn't touch them. He opened the fridge and saw that there were still some leftovers from before. He thought about simply stir - frying two dishes and making some porridge to deal with dinner.
Both of them had been in the car for a whole day today. They were really tired.
The kitchen door was open. Ren Qingzhou could clearly hear the sound of water, which meant that Su Tang was already taking a shower.
He washed the rice and added a few more ingredients, preparing to make a pot of porridge. Just as he took out the pot, he heard a ringing sound from the living room.
It should be that Su Tang had left her phone in the living room and didn't take it back.
Her phone kept ringing. Ren Qingzhou wiped his hands and walked out of the kitchen. He saw her phone on the table in the living room, vibrating non - stop.
Ren Qingzhou called out, "Tiantian, your phone has been ringing."
Su Tang was in the middle of taking a shower and couldn't go out to answer the phone. "Check who's calling."
Ren Qingzhou then looked at the phone screen. "It's an unknown number."
"Don't worry about it. It's probably a real - estate salesman or an insurance agent."
"Okay."
As soon as he finished speaking, Su Tang's phone stopped vibrating. Just as Ren Qingzhou was about to go back to the kitchen to continue cooking, he found that her phone rang again after two seconds.
"Tiantian, it's the same number calling again."
"Could it be something important from the company?"
"Do you want me to pass the phone in to you?"
"No, no. You answer it for me and ask. If it's not important, tell him I'll call back later."
With her permission, Ren Qingzhou answered the phone.
Fang Haoran was in a hurry to call Su Tang for a reason. After he sent Su Tang home today, he went to the hospital. It was not until now that he had returned home.
When he parked his car in the underground garage, he found that Su Tang's wallet was left in the car.
She must have not noticed when she got out of the car. There wasn't much cash in the wallet, but there were quite a few various certificates.
Fang Haoran was afraid that she would be too anxious, so he quickly called her. When the first call didn't go through, he called again.
"Su Tang, you left your wallet in my car today. I'll pick you up for work tomorrow and return it to you on the way."
Ren Qingzhou listened to the voice on the other end of the phone. It was obvious that they were very familiar with each other. He had never heard that Su Tang had any male friends in City S before.
"She's not convenient to answer the phone right now. She'll call you back later."
"Okay. Please convey this to her."
Fang Haoran didn't think much about it. He just assumed that she, like him, had gone to the workplace in the afternoon.
Her company had a tradition of overtime work. It wasn't strange for her to still be in the company at this time.
When Su Tang came out of the shower, she saw Ren Qingzhou sitting on the sofa again. Her phone was also placed on the table in front of him.
"Your friend called just now and said that you left your wallet in his car. He'll come to pick you up for work tomorrow morning and return it to you on the way." Ren Qingzhou relayed the message.
Su Tang realized that it would be difficult to explain this clearly all at once. She put down the towel in her hand and looked at the phone. Sure enough, it was Fang Haoran.
"I didn't know you had male friends here."
"We're from the same hometown. We met by chance once."
"Then why did you lie to me?"
"You went back to Yuncheng with him and came back with him too. The person who helped you at the airport wasn't a stranger at all, right?"
"Yes..."
"So when I asked you just now, you didn't even think for a moment and made up a whole set of lies to deceive me."
"I always thought you were a very sincere person. I remember we once said that no matter what happened, we should face it together and not hide anything from each other. How do you explain this to me?"
Ren Qingzhou was extremely disappointed. If she had chosen to confess when he first asked her, he wouldn't be feeling this disappointed now.
He had given her one chance after another, but she had chosen to deceive him again and again. Until now, she could no longer hide it.
"We really are just from the same hometown. We just happened to have the same schedule this time and went back together. There's really nothing else."
"I didn't tell you because I was afraid you would think too much."
"Can I still believe you now?"
"This is really just a small thing. Don't make a mountain out of a molehill, okay? It's not as serious as you think."
"Do you think this thing isn't serious enough? Then let me ask you, how did you two meet?"
Su Tang was immediately rendered speechless. She couldn't just say that they met on a blind date...