What Are Your Tastes? chapter 70

The Black BYD

The next eveningThe next evening, Lu Yunchu was the last to leave the studio. The sky was already completely dark.

This month’s workload was still heavy, and with Zhou Yanchuan on a business trip, he didn’t rush home early.

The car was parked in its usual spot in the back parking lot. Streetlights, filtered through frosted glass, cast a dim glow.

As he walked towards his car, he once again felt someone’s gaze on him, his back seemed entangled by damp seaweed.

His hand touched the car door, and his anxiety intensified. He turned sharply and shouted, “Come out!”

A blurry shadow by the lamppost wavered at his shout, slowly moving into the silvery light.

“Yunchu.” It was Meng Xiao.

He looked calm, holding something in his hand, approaching slowly.

“You—” Lu Yunchu was not afraid of Meng Xiao. Seeing his face relaxed him slightly, but anger quickly took over, “Why are you following me?”

“I just came to find you,” his voice was much weaker than last time, “I was hesitant because I thought you wouldn’t want to see me.”

“If you know I don’t want to see you, then why come?”

“I thought,” he raised his hand, “I should return this to you.”

Lu Yunchu took the item from his hand; it was his notebook left at Meng Xiao’s place. The contents confirmed its identity, despite the time that had passed.

“My flight is tomorrow,” he said, “consider it a goodbye.”

So, he was finally leaving?

Whether he was going to another city or back to Italy, Lu Yunchu didn’t care. He murmured, “I know.”

“You can’t wait for me to leave, can you?” Meng Xiao laughed mockingly. “You’re happy to see me gone, right?”

“Blaming others is really your style.”

“Think what you want,” he said, “At least this way, you won’t forget me.”

“Are you insane?” Lu Yunchu remembered the previous night and stopped him, “Did you follow me last night too?”

Meng Xiao looked confused, “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb. Weren’t you at Luanhe Street?” Thinking back, the shadowy figure from the previous night might have been Meng Xiao, not Ning Ruowei’s stalker.

But Meng Xiao shook his head, “I didn’t leave home since noon yesterday, only came to find you today.”

“It wasn’t you?”

“What happened?” he suddenly looked anxious, “Someone following you?”

“No, maybe I was mistaken,” Lu Yunchu, unable to confirm, felt a strange aversion due to Meng Xiao’s attitude, muttering, “Stop acting concerned.”

“Yunchu,” Meng Xiao heard him, “You may not believe me, but I never intended to hurt you, and I don’t want to see you in trouble.”

Lu Yunchu’s mood didn’t improve, he retorted, “Do you think as long as it’s not physical violence, it’s not real harm?”

Meng Xiao was speechless, head bowed, fists clenched.

“Forget it, take care of yourself.” He opened the car door and got in.

The car started, bright beams illuminating ahead. Initially, Meng Xiao still stood there, Lu Yunchu was about to honk when he saw him move, stepping into the dark.

Zhou Yanchuan’s return ticket was for the evening. He had planned to call a driver, but Lu Yunchu insisted on picking him up, suggesting they could have dinner together.

The station was crowded, Lu Yunchu picked him up without stopping and drove back to the main road, heading onto the overpass.

The sun had just set, the soft dusk lingering in the sky, Lu Yunchu removed his sunglasses used to block the glare and hummed a tune while driving.

“It’s cooler here,” Zhou Yanchuan glanced at him, “Why are you so happy? Because I’m back?”

“Not entirely.” Lu Yunchu laughed.

“You have good news?”

“Yeah.”

Zhou Yanchuan was intrigued, “What is it?”

“Yanchuan,” Lu Yunchu, holding back for two days, couldn’t resist anymore, cautiously asked, “Have you ever thought about getting another dog?”

“Getting a dog?” Zhou Yanchuan, seeing his expression, realized that perhaps Lu Yunchu had found a puppy while he was away and wanted to bring it home.

He couldn’t describe his feelings; if Yunchu wanted a pet, he would agree, but thinking of Sabrina, the puppy they had for more than half a month, he felt a twinge of regret. That was a puppy Lu Yunchu found, how nice it would have been if it had stayed with them.

He realized his thoughts were very selfish and didn’t want to dampen Lu Yunchu’s enthusiasm, so he pretended to be relaxed and said, “Sure, are you thinking about getting a puppy?”

Lu Yunchu glanced at him deliberately, “Do you remember Sabrina?”

“Of course, I just thought of her recently,” Zhou Yanchuan suspected his earlier worries had been completely seen through. “Are you saying we should get a poodle too?”

“Not buy one,” Lu Yunchu couldn’t bear to tease him further. “Tao Jin called me the day before yesterday. He said he’s going abroad to study for a while and plans to give us Sabrina.”

“Huh?” The surprise came so suddenly that Zhou Yanchuan’s brain couldn’t keep up. “Give her to us to raise?”

“Yes,” Lu Yunchu added, “around July or August. He wants to spend the holiday with her first.”

“That makes sense, she’s really attached to him.” Zhou Yanchuan’s joy was unmistakable, and he felt embarrassed remembering how he had gossiped about Tao Jin behind his back before. Over the past six months, Sabrina had lived happily with Tao Jin, and his thoughts had changed. “It’s just as well since we’re moving to a new place with more space.”

While looking for a restaurant to eat, Lu Yunchu got off the expressway early. The city traffic wasn’t as bad as usual, and they still moved smoothly after passing two intersections.

It was then that he noticed something unusual through the rearview mirror.

When they left the high-speed rail station, he saw a black BYD car that followed them onto the expressway, falling behind twice, intentionally overtaking to catch up, but never overtaking them completely.

Though he couldn’t rule out coincidence, his intuition led him to think otherwise.

Lu Yunchu signaled left from a lane meant to go straight and merged into the turning lane. The black car reacted a beat late, got separated by several vehicles, but also turned.

“Yanchuan—” He shot a glance at the person in the car, and Zhou Yanchuan clearly noticed too, his brows furrowed, looking serious.

“Let’s not eat outside,” he said. “Can we shake them off?”

“Okay.” Lu Yunchu nodded, calmly pressing the accelerator.

Taking advantage of the sudden turn, he sped up, intentionally choosing complex routes and skillfully weaving through traffic. By the time they approached Blue Bay, the black car was nowhere in sight.

Who exactly was this person after? Lu Yunchu was puzzled, even suspecting Meng Xiao, who supposedly left today. But Zhou Yanchuan seemed to know something. As soon as they got home, he made several calls, all about the evening, and finally, he said, “Not sure… keep an eye on him for now.”

He still looked grim after putting down the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Yunchu asked, “Do you know something?”

“There was a situation I didn’t pay much attention to,” he said. “Zheng Xun got out.”

During the last incident, Zhou Yanchuan’s injury wasn’t severe enough for a heavy sentence. Zheng Xun and those involved were detained for a few months and had recently been released.

“Besides, Ziyang told me he bought a new car after leaving Hongchuan, a black BYD.”