FIO CH44

Chapter 44: A Rather Eccentric Guy

This scene felt somewhat familiar. A few months ago, it had been the same—coming home late at night to find someone standing at the door. The difference was that back then, Zhou Zheng had looked pitiful, like a little puppy. Now, he stood with his hands in his pockets, looking down at Lu Fangchi with a condescending gaze.

In just a few days, Lu Fangchi could no longer find a trace of the “little puppy” in Zhou Zheng. It was as if all the affectionate whispers had been fleeting, or perhaps they were just figments of his imagination, a grand dream that had come to an end.

Zhou Zheng’s face was stern, his eyes deep and dark as ink as he questioned, “Where have you been?”

The question was nonsensical—what did it have to do with him? Lu Fangchi didn’t answer but instead countered, “Do you have something to say?”

Lu Fangchi’s evasive response and distant tone ignited the anger within Zhou Zheng. He curled his lips into a cold smile, and his plump, red lips spat out a malicious guess: “Went to see some random guy?”

Lu Fangchi’s brow furrowed. He didn’t want to engage in Zhou Zheng’s nonsense, so he ignored him and stepped forward to go home.

However, Zhou Zheng moved to block the door, standing like a mountain in his way.

Lu Fangchi pursed his lips, avoided looking at him, and said patiently, “Move aside.”

Zhou Zheng didn’t budge, and his harsh words rang out overhead, “Not answering means I hit the nail on the head?”

Lu Fangchi frowned. He didn’t have the time or the mood to argue with him. He roughly pushed Zhou Zheng to the side.

Zhou Zheng, seemingly not expecting this move from Lu Fangchi, stumbled and only managed to keep from falling by pressing his heels against the wall corner. It was clear how much force Lu Fangchi had used.

Zhou Zheng’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Lu Fangchi’s cold, retreating figure. He stepped forward and fiercely grabbed Lu Fangchi’s wrist.

This action revealed the white bandage on Lu Fangchi’s hand, the faint smell of disinfectant on him, and the redness partially hidden by his mask.

Zhou Zheng froze, loosened his grip on Lu Fangchi’s wrist, and frowned, asking, “Are you sick?”

Lu Fangchi didn’t respond, coldly pulled his wrist back, and bent down to scan his fingerprint.

“Ding-dong, the door is unlocked. Welcome home,” the electronic voice announced. Lu Fangchi opened the door, stepped inside, and quickly turned to block it, preventing Zhou Zheng from following him in.

Zhou Zheng, no longer as assertive as before, moved his lips and said, “You deleted my fingerprint. I’ve been waiting for you at the door for over three hours.”

“So?” Lu Fangchi asked expressionlessly.

Zhou Zheng bit his lip, met Lu Fangchi’s gaze, and something seemed to shatter in his eyes. His voice, tinged with red, said, “I’m here to pack up my things.”

It was a good reason. Lu Fangchi let go and allowed him to enter.

Lu Fangchi stood with his arms crossed in the entrance hall, watching Zhou Zheng’s movements. He reached out to open the shoe cabinet to change his shoes.

As soon as he opened it, he realized something was wrong. The shoe cabinet was mostly empty; at a glance, all his shoes were gone, not even a pair of slippers left.

Zhou Zheng looked at Lu Fangchi, who averted his gaze and lowered his eyelids, coldly saying, “No need to change. Just come in.”

Zhou Zheng pursed his lips and stood there for a moment, but in the end, he took off his shoes and walked in barefoot.

As soon as he entered, he saw the stack of boxes in the corner, almost as tall as a person, and heard Lu Fangchi’s voice: “Everything’s packed. You can just move them out.”

Zhou Zheng’s eyes turned even redder. In just a few days, Lu Fangchi had deleted his fingerprint and packed up his things. He was that eager to get rid of him.

The alpha’s Adam’s apple moved, his brows furrowed, and he twitched his nose a couple of times, as if trying hard to hold back something. He turned to Lu Fangchi and said, “I need to check.”

Checking each of the many boxes would take a lot of time. It was already half past one in the morning, and Lu Fangchi wanted to rest. He frowned slightly and said, “Nothing will be missing.”

“Who knows that,” Zhou Zheng retorted.

Indeed, their relationship had always been one where even a glance at each other was superfluous, lacking any trust. This demand was only natural. Lu Fangchi frowned and conceded, “How about you come this weekend?”

“Today,” Zhou Zheng insisted, his feet firmly planted, “I don’t have time on the weekend.”

Lu Fangchi thought about it and agreed. If it could be settled in a day, there was no need to drag it out for days. Better to get it over with sooner.

“Alright, check away,” Lu Fangchi relented, sitting on the sofa to watch Zhou Zheng inspect the items.

He rolled up his sleeves and began to move the boxes, unstacking them one by one until they covered most of the living room floor. Only then did he start to open the boxes. He fumbled with the edge of the tape for a long time, struggling to find a starting point. When he finally managed to tear it open, it wasn’t smooth and broke halfway through. He had to start over, and after seven or eight minutes of fiddling, he still hadn’t successfully opened a single box.

Lu Fangchi, who was sitting on the sofa, couldn’t bear to watch any longer. He got up, went to the study, and brought back a utility knife, which he slapped onto one of the boxes.

The alpha reluctantly picked up the utility knife and cut through the tape, finally managing to open the first box. Inside were shoes, mostly the ones Liu Assistant had packed and sent over initially, with a few added later on, and three pairs of shoes that were clearly a size smaller—Lu Fangchi’s.

Zhou Zheng placed the three pairs of shoes in front of Lu Fangchi and spread his hands, saying, “You packed these wrong.” He meant that his inspection was necessary.

Lu Fangchi glanced at them and then looked away, urging, “Hurry up and check.”

He then opened the second box, the third box, and the more he checked, the worse Zhou Zheng’s expression became.

The second box contained daily toiletries: body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, towels, bath towels, skincare products, and so on. It was understandable that the toothbrush, towels, and skincare products were packed for him, but why were the body wash, shampoo, and toothpaste, which were meant for shared use, also packed for him?

The second box could be somewhat justified, but the third box, filled with kitchenware, was too obvious. Pots, pans, bowls, cups—anything he had used was packed up.

Did he think he was poisoned? Anything he had touched was considered contaminated?

With a gloomy expression, Zhou Zheng roughly opened the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth boxes… and finally confirmed his guess as well as the underlying logic of Lu Fangchi’s packing.

Anything he had used, from small items like cups to large ones like bed linens, anything he had bought for himself or for Lu Fangchi, or even items that were not paid for by him but were related to him, such as matching shoes and clothes in the same color scheme, were all packed up.

In short, anything that had the slightest connection to him, Lu Fangchi didn’t want.

Zhou Zheng stood up and scanned the room. Everything related to him was gone, leaving the place much emptier. The alpha stood with his hands on his hips, his tongue sweeping across his gums and pushing against his cheek. “Good, very good,” he said with a smile, nodding at Lu Fangchi. His eyes, red with anger, looked at Lu Fangchi as he raised his thumb and said through gritted teeth, “You really did a great job.”

Lu Fangchi’s brows furrowed. Zhou Zheng’s expression of being a victim made him uncomfortable. “Finished checking?”

Zhou Zheng glanced at the mess on the floor and nodded slightly, “Yeah.”

“Then you can leave,” he said, urging him to go.

“Since you want to be so clear-cut, let’s settle everything thoroughly,” Zhou Zheng said coldly, bending down to start rummaging through the items on the floor.

Lu Fangchi frowned, not understanding, “What?”

Zhou Zheng picked up a pot and weighed it in his hand. Lu Fangchi thought the alpha’s face was as dark as the bottom of the pot and for a moment, he was even worried that Zhou Zheng would hit someone with it. Then he heard him say sarcastically, “How much? I don’t want to take it for free.”

“And this set of bed linens,” Zhou Zheng kicked and nudged with his foot, “Pillow, cup, cutlery, comb, nail clippers.”

The alpha pointed and waved his hand to include everything, “Give me a price for all of it, and I’ll settle with you at once.”

Lu Fangchi frowned. How could he calculate the price for so many items? That wasn’t his intention at all, “No need.”

“I understand, Mr. Lu is wealthy and doesn’t care about such small amounts,” Zhou Zheng nodded, maliciously misinterpreting.

Lu Fangchi’s brows furrowed even deeper. What on earth was he trying to do?

“But I’m different,” Zhou Zheng changed his tone, looking at Lu Fangchi with a crooked smile, “I’m poor and petty, I have to calculate.”

Then Lu Fangchi watched as he rummaged through the box and pulled out a bottle of shampoo, shaking it to show it was about half full. He said, “The shampoo originally cost one hundred and ninety-eight yuan. It’s half left, one hundred and ninety-eight divided by two equals ninety-nine, rounding up, that’s one hundred yuan for you.”

Lu Fangchi blinked, not understanding what Zhou Zheng was calculating.

Zhou Zheng continued to dig through the box and took out half a tube of toothpaste, “This toothpaste was one hundred and twenty-eight yuan. Judging by the amount left, about two-thirds, dividing by three gives a decimal, let’s say ninety yuan for you.”

“This set of body wash costs five hundred and eighty yuan, but you like the scent. I could have just used soap, so I’ll give it all to you, six hundred yuan.”

What did he mean? Rounding up was one thing, but how could it be even higher than the original price? No, what on earth was he calculating?

Zhou Zheng took out his phone and started searching on Baidu, then waved his phone in front of Lu Fangchi’s eyes.

Lu Fangchi saw that the screen read, “The average monthly salary of a nanny in City A is 15,000 yuan.” He couldn’t understand the relevance of this information when he heard Zhou Zheng say, “I’ve lived in your house for half a year. I did all the laundry and cooking. According to the average monthly salary of a nanny, you owe me ninety thousand yuan. Oh, and there’s the cost of groceries, but let’s consider that as an extra gift.” The alpha waved his hand as if being very generous.

Lu Fangchi felt like he was going mad from anger and actually followed Zhou Zheng’s absurd logic, “So, when I was on a business trip and you were working overtime, and you didn’t do the cleaning or cooking for a long time, how do we calculate that?”

“It doesn’t count,” Zhou Zheng acted like a rogue, “Consider it paid leave. You didn’t object at the time, did you?”

He understood every word, but when put together, it made no sense. Lu Fangchi rubbed his aching temples, wondering if his illness had affected his mind.

“So, how much do I owe you?” Lu Fangchi asked.

Zhou Zheng continued to rummage through the items, and then he took out the engagement bracelet, the black woven chain dangling from his index finger, “This bracelet costs three thousand five hundred yuan. Including the one I’m wearing, you owe me seven thousand.”

The one he had worn was fine, but “Why should I pay for the one you’re wearing?” Lu Fangchi couldn’t understand.

“Because they were all bought for you. I just took what was left. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have bought any, so it’s on you,” Zhou Zheng said.

What a bandit’s logic! Lu Fangchi was so astonished that he finally cursed him, “Are you crazy?”

Zhou Zheng raised an eyebrow and continued to provoke, “What, can’t you afford it?”

“I don’t have to pay,” the alpha shrugged, magnanimously saying, “Then you keep these things, and I’ll pay you.”

Lu Fangchi’s face darkened as he took out his phone, quickly did the mental math, rounded it up to a whole number, and transferred two hundred thousand yuan.

He shook his phone and said two words, “It’s settled.”

Zhou Zheng’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown, his eyes reddened again, his lips pursed tightly, and he swallowed hard before nodding slightly, “Alright.”

Lu Fangchi gave a meaningful look at the items on the floor, signaling that he could leave.

Zhou Zheng silently squatted down to pack up the items, putting them back into the cardboard boxes one by one and sealing them with tape again.

This process took about ten minutes, and after repacking all eight large boxes, he had to leave.

Zhou Zheng slowly opened his phone and ordered a delivery service, adding a particularly strict note that drivers who wouldn’t help with the moving for free should not accept the order.

The next second, a “ding-dong” notification popped up, indicating that a driver had accepted the order.

Speechless.

Zhou Zheng immediately canceled the order and started to act stubborn, “Forget it, I don’t want it. I can’t move it.”