What Are Your Tastes? chapter 71
I Won’t Bother You Anymore (Supporting Character Chapter)
An Yuan, who also had some knowledge of Zheng Xun’s recent situation, didn’t take him seriously.
Saturday’s hospital work was more hectic than usual. After a day of hard work, she finally got to relax, changed clothes, and walked out of the emergency hall.
“Okay, you come over then.” She ended the call with Ning Ruowei, her gaze sweeping to the approaching figure in the distance, subconsciously frowning.
More than a year after the divorce, Zheng Xun had sought her out three times alone. If he hadn’t been caught for inciting violence, the number would definitely be higher.
Her steps never slowed, even wanting to bypass him directly. But Zheng Xun called out to her.
“Yuan Yuan,” she heard Zheng Xun say, “I came to see you.”
Not even ten words, yet each one hit her sore spot.
“Don’t call me that anymore,” she said calmly, “and I don’t think there’s any need for you to see me.”
“No need?” Zheng Xun ignored her first statement, “Yuan Yuan, I have a question. Can you answer me honestly?”
“What question?”
“What is your relationship with Mr. Zhou?”
An Yuan almost couldn’t catch her breath: “What do you mean by that?”
“No particular meaning,” he muttered, “you always say you’re not involved with him, but why did I see you two fishing together…”
“Fishing?” Wasn’t that at the reservoir last month? An Yuan, forgetting her anger, looked at him strangely, “How did you know?”
“I was there with friends and happened to see you,” he said with a slightly aggrieved tone, “I didn’t dare come up to greet you.”
An Yuan retorted sarcastically, “You, afraid you’d do something you’d regret?”
“Yuan Yuan, I don’t mean anything else, just wanted to see you—”
“Wanted to see me?” She coldly replied, “I’ll say it one last time, we have no relationship. Mr. Zhou has his own lover. Can you stop speculating about others’ private lives?”
“He has a lover?” Zheng Xun seemed to understand her words, murmuring, “So it’s really that man…”
“What do you know?” she asked, chills running down her spine.
“Humph, a man,” Zheng Xun sneered, “there were rumors online that he was gay, and it turns out he is. I even saw that man pick him up from the station…”
An Yuan felt a chill on her back: “You were following Mr. Zhou?”
“I don’t have time to follow him,” he sneered, “I said I’m just concerned about you, so I looked into it a bit. I saw them once, no more after that. As long as you’re not with him, who he loves, man or woman, doesn’t matter to me.”
An Yuan silently scrutinized him, doubtful of his words.
“Zheng Xun, have you forgotten one thing?” She reminded him, “We are long divorced. Whoever I am with has nothing to do with you.”
“I know,” he surprisingly didn’t get angry, “but Zhou Yanchuan is no good. He’s just an uneducated laborer. Yuan Yuan, you deserve someone better, and it doesn’t have to be me.”
An Yuan suppressed her anger and enunciated each word, “Is this what you came here to say today?”
“Yes, I also need to live a good life,” he sighed slightly, looking somewhat desolate. “I’ve found a job at a car repair shop. Isn’t it ironic? I’m doing the same job Zhou Yanchuan did in his early years… Is this what they call karma?”
Zheng Xun, speaking these words, appeared incredibly unfamiliar to An Yuan. In fact, he had become so unfamiliar over the past two years that she could no longer recognize him, or perhaps she had never truly seen his real self.
“You brought this on yourself.”
“Yeah,” Zheng Xun laughed self-mockingly, “Yuan Yuan, you were raised in a sheltered environment, always able to do what you wanted. You probably can’t understand the strict upbringing I had.”
“Strict?” She found it ironic, “So strict it made you assault people?”
“No,” he shook his head, “My parents had me late in life and pinned all their hopes on me. They made me understand that only by studying hard and striving could I become a successful person. But… after joining Hongchuan, I realized that they were talking nonsense!”
An Yuan had met Zheng Xun’s parents only around their wedding. Shortly afterward, the two elderly people had tragically died in a plane crash during a trip. If they were still alive, they might have restrained many of Zheng Xun’s behaviors. Once this natural “shackle” was gone, his true nature had gradually revealed itself.
An Yuan had been planning to divorce Zheng Xun even before he betrayed Hongchuan. His jealousy, suspicion, and controlling nature had always caused her tremendous mental stress.
“No one has wronged you,” she emphasized for the last time, “Zheng Xun, if your mind was in the right place, you wouldn’t have been stuck in one spot from the beginning.”
“I understand, that’s why I want to start over,” he said, slightly less hostile. “Don’t look down on me now, it hasn’t been easy to get this far.”
“Yuan Yuan, I won’t bother you anymore.”
An Yuan no longer felt like mentioning “you reap what you sow,” just hoping that as he said, she wouldn’t have to see him for the rest of her life.
“Hope you keep your word and don’t appear in front of me again.”
Watching his departing figure, An Yuan dialed Mo Ziyang’s number.