FIO CH15

Chapter 15: Truly Wrong, Just Once

At the same time, clusters of balloons began to float up outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Lu Fangchi straightened up and looked out the window. Assorted hydrogen balloons ascended into the sky, in gold, silver, red, and blue, in the shapes of hearts, spheres, and even cartoon characters. The scene was spectacular and dazzling to the eyes. Looking down, he saw a dense crowd of people, all holding their phones and taking pictures of the four big characters “Happy New Year” displayed on the electronic screen.

His gaze shifted back to the computer program of fireworks, and he recalled the guilty expression on Zhou Zheng’s face when he called him for dinner. It seemed Zhou Zheng had been working on this. A soft light shone in Lu Fangchi’s eyes, and his lips curled up slightly.

He didn’t have a New Year’s Eve ritual, but no one could resist such a pleasant surprise.

But thinking of the earlier unpleasant parting, and the displeased look on Zhou Zheng’s face when he left… Lu Fangchi glanced down at the dense crowd outside the window, wondering if it would be difficult to get a taxi today. He took out his phone and started to make a WeChat call to Zhou Zheng.

“Beep… beep… beep…” No one answered.

Lu Fangchi closed his computer, took off his coat from the coat rack, and put it on. He walked outside while still making the call, looking around for Zhou Zheng’s figure along the way.

By the time the car entered the community, he had made five calls, all unanswered.

If no one was home, he would have to call Xiao Liu. “Ding” Fingerprint recognition successful, Lu Fangchi opened the door and entered the entrance hall. He turned on the light switch, and the warm light illuminated the lump on the sofa.

Zhou Zheng was lying on the sofa, covered with a quilt, not showing his face, like a caterpillar.

Since he had been sick, he had been sleeping in the bedroom. Now he had moved to the sofa, probably to “declare” his dissatisfaction.

Lu Fangchi put down his car keys, changed into slippers, and walked slowly to the sofa. He sat down and patted the lump, “Asleep?”

Zhou Zheng, like a cocoon wrapped in silk, remained motionless.

“Talk,” Lu Fangchi said.

Zhou Zheng still didn’t move.

Lu Fangchi didn’t think an alpha would sleep at this hour, so he reached out to pull the quilt off Zhou Zheng, but it wouldn’t budge.

Zhou Zheng didn’t speak or react, but he was secretly holding on tight, wrapping the quilt so tightly that it couldn’t be pulled even an inch.

After trying for five minutes without success, Lu Fangchi gave up. He didn’t want to suffocate Zhou Zheng with the quilt.

He decided to let Zhou Zheng cool off first; arguing while angry wouldn’t be productive.

Lu Fangchi got up and went back to the bedroom to wash up. The hot water from the shower washed away the fatigue of the day. He walked out of the bathroom and lay on the bed. The soft touch made him close his eyes.

The work process had finally come to a temporary halt. Even though a lot had happened today, Lu Fangchi didn’t feel like thinking about it anymore. As soon as he closed his eyes, he fell asleep.

“Click… click…”

Lu Fangchi frowned, pulled the quilt over his ears to block out the noise. Fortunately, there were only two sounds, and it quickly became quiet again.

His furrowed brows relaxed, and he slowly drifted back to sleep. Just as he hadn’t fallen into a deep sleep yet, there was another “creak” of the door opening. The person made a few small noises, like ants crawling on his back. Their presence wasn’t strong, but it was annoying and made him feel itchy all over.

Lu Fangchi exhaled through his nose and turned over dramatically.

With another “creak” of the door closing, the surroundings became quiet again. The young man let out a breath.

For the third time.

This time, the other party went even further. After a half-minute interval, they came in again, “creak” of the door, and even turned on the light switch. The sudden bright orange-yellow light was so stimulating that Lu Fangchi had to cover his eyes with his hand.

The person went into the bathroom, the flush of the toilet sounded several times, and they rummaged through the drawers, making fine but undeniable noises.

Lu Fangchi felt his temples throbbing, and an indescribable irritation kept surging in his heart.

He had thought that this time the noise would disappear quickly like the previous two times, but it continued for five or six minutes without stopping, and the sound grew louder, as if trying to get someone’s attention.

At this point, if Lu Fangchi still didn’t understand, he would be strange.

He couldn’t bear it any longer, opened his eyes in irritation, sat up with a frown, rubbed his face, and then got out of bed. He walked to the door frame of the bathroom with unsteady steps and leaned on it.

Zhou Zheng, pretending to be busy, naturally heard the footsteps. He sensed the gaze on his back but pretended not to know. He closed the drawer he had been searching through for a long time, turned around with empty hands, and walked out without looking at Lu Fangchi.

Lu Fangchi stretched out his leg to block his way.

Only then did Zhou Zheng look up, condescendingly glanced at the other party, and said coldly, “What for?”

In the middle of the night, Lu Fangchi had no mood to beat around the bush and got straight to the point: “Come on, tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I wouldn’t dare to have any thoughts,” Zhou Zheng said sarcastically.

Ignoring Zhou Zheng’s insincerity, Lu Fangchi suppressed the irritation from being woken up and patiently explained: “I know what kind of person Xie Xing is. I didn’t mean to take his side. As for the apology, there is an essential disparity in strength between AO. No matter what the reason, as an alpha, you shouldn’t have used force against an omega.”

“So it’s my fault, then,” Zhou Zheng shrugged indifferently.

Lu Fangchi frowned, “Can you talk seriously?”

“I’ve been talking seriously all along,” still with that casual tone, but his face was full of disapproval.

Lu Fangchi, who had been woken up from a deep sleep, already had a bit of anger in his heart. The culprit didn’t speak properly and kept doing it again and again. The young man clicked his cheek with his tongue, nodded, and said, “Alright.”

He didn’t say anything more, turned around, and lay back on the bed, reaching out to turn off the light.

The rising and falling of his chest showed that he was not calm. The brat was really annoying.

People are all cheap. If you don’t talk nicely, you have to give them a bad face to know how to speak properly.

Realizing that Lu Fangchi was really angry, the flame in Zhou Zheng’s body was instantly extinguished. He walked to the edge of the bed and squatted down pitifully, turned on the bedside lamp, and reached out to poke the quilt.

Lu Fangchi ignored him.

Zhou Zheng poked again, and again.

The young man reached out and patted the quilt, telling him to stop bothering.

Zhou Zheng withdrew his hand and dared not move anymore, muttering in a low voice, “I’m wrong.”

Lu Fangchi still didn’t speak, but his expression softened a lot. The furrowed brows on his forehead slightly relaxed.

Zhou Zheng pressed his advantage: “Really wrong, just once.”

Lu Fangchi didn’t like to make a fuss. Seeing that the other party finally had a communicative appearance, he sat up and faced Zhou Zheng, asking, “Where did you go wrong?”

Unlike his earlier brazenness, Zhou Zheng now looked embarrassed and wronged, like a large dog with its ears drooping and eyes cast down. He bit his lip and reflected, “I shouldn’t have spoken disrespectfully, I shouldn’t have deliberately woken you up, and I shouldn’t have kept silent when you first asked to talk.”

Lu Fangchi gave him a look—good that you know.

“Alright, sleep,” Lu Fangchi moved over to make room for Zhou Zheng.

Zhou Zheng took the opportunity and lay down.

Lu Fangchi closed his eyes, preparing to sleep, when he heard a soft murmur from behind: “But I was angry. You were so harsh to me at the company, and you didn’t come find me after I left. The damned New Year’s Eve event made it impossible to get a taxi. I walked for forty minutes before I got home. When you came back, you only said two sentences. I thought if you said one more sentence to me, I would forgive you, but you went to sleep in the bedroom. I was so frustrated inside.”

Zhou Zheng’s heart was really quite active. The clumsy encounter was quite funny. Lu Fangchi curved his eyes and pulled up the corners of his mouth, wanting to turn around and say, “Whose fault is it then?”

Zhou Zheng sighed, “Forget it, who let me like you.”