Chapter 143: Spy in the Dish?

“Finished drinking? Once you’re done, you sleep on the bed tonight, and I’ll take the sofa. I have work in the morning.”

Xu Qingzhou cleared away the bowl.

During the two months they had dated, she had been the one handling all three meals a day at home. Wasn’t there a saying that to capture a person’s heart, you had to capture their stomach?

Back then, it had mostly been about fooling the other person anyway.

Her goal as a straight girl pretending to be gay was just for her own teeth.

She went to the kitchen to wash the dishes and tidy up.

She rarely had time to cook anymore. After becoming famous, she mostly ordered takeout.

Who had time to cook?

Xie An walked in and couldn’t help wrapping her arms around Xu Qingzhou’s waist from behind.

Xu Qingzhou froze.

This woman…

“Don’t dodge me… I just want to hug you for a bit, just a bit…”

Her voice trembled faintly, as if she were very afraid.

Xie An had anticipated her reaction in advance.

It had been so long; she had waited far too long for this embrace.

She loved holding Xu Qingzhou like this so much.

If she could, she never wanted to let go for the rest of her life.

She never wanted to let go.

Even though it was just that one photo Lin Shuyi had sent her.

She knew she might have misunderstood.

But she was so scared.

Scared that the other person would find another girlfriend—and that girlfriend wouldn’t be her.

Xu Qingzhou sighed. Who could blame her soft heart?

It was just a hug, right?

It wouldn’t cost her any flesh. Whatever.

Besides, she had “stolen” the other person’s cat, so letting Tangyuan’s owner hug her back evened things out.

Xie An really just held her obediently and didn’t do anything too excessive.

“I’m going to grab the bedding and sleep on the sofa.”

“I want…”

“Want what? Don’t even think about it! We’re exes!”

Xu Qingzhou snapped back fiercely.

What was this woman thinking?

They were ex-girlfriends, weren’t they?

Did she want to satisfy her physical needs with her now?

Was there any woman like that?

Xie An was suddenly scolded and stared blankly for a moment.

Then she burst out laughing.

“What are you thinking? I meant that I have some things going on lately, so I can’t take Tangyuan back yet. Is it okay if it stays here with you for a while? I saw that Tangyuan likes you a lot.”

“I… I… What do you mean, what was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking anything!”

Even if her thoughts were seen through, she refused to admit it.

Besides, why leave it here with her?

For some reason, Lin Shuyi’s words about “the child” suddenly popped into her head.

This was Xie An’s cat, not hers.

“Why leave your cat with me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll just starve it to death?”

“You won’t.”

Xie An glanced back at Tangyuan, who had gained a little weight.

How could this person be bad to a stray cat?

If she were, Tangyuan would have been emaciated by now.

But from the looks of it, she absolutely wouldn’t do that.

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m not a good person, you know that. The one who deceived you into dating me back then was me, not someone else. Don’t you hate me? And yet you want to get back together?”

Xu Qingzhou couldn’t help bringing it up. Actually, she was a good person.

But in Xie An’s life experience, she must have been a complete villain.

It had been exploitation from the start.

She often thought the other was a fool, so foolish.

She couldn’t even see through such clumsy acting?

“No… it wasn’t you who deceived me. It was… I who deceived you.”

Xie An calmly removed her glasses, her eyes reddening as if tears were welling up.

All of this was because of her.

It had nothing to do with Xu Qingzhou.

In her junior year, she had heard a girl’s voice in a radio drama.

It was gentle and melodious, like a little oriole.

She was Xu Qingzhou’s first listener and her first fan to follow her.

Xu Qingzhou never knew that.

She followed her Weibo back then, when Xu Qingzhou wasn’t famous yet.

There were many shares on her Weibo.

[Visited Mom and Dad again today. Don’t worry, your daughter is doing just fine.]

[Woo woo woo! Got docked twenty bucks today! But I swindled half a box of popsicles, so I came out ahead.]

[About to start recording. Thanks to all my lovely listeners. Love you all.]

Even though her parents had both passed away, her attitude toward life remained full of love.

She seemed like a really good girl. That year, Xie An was twenty.

Even without meeting in person, just from the photos on her Weibo.

She fell uncontrollably in love with her.

Then, in her senior year when she started interning, her roommate told her that the little girl she liked was standing at the school gate, covering her face, as if waiting for someone.

She had cared about her for a whole year.

She commented under every Weibo post.

Later, seeing her covering her face, plus her irregular schedule and unstable work.

She probably had a toothache and was waiting at the entrance of the dental college instead of going to the hospital.

She might want to trick someone into treating her teeth.

Since she needed to trick someone, and pick a victim.

She could play the role of that big sucker.

After that, she wandered around the spots where Xu Qingzhou appeared almost every day, pretending to be innocent.

Soon, she was targeted by the other.

Mainly because Xu Qingzhou was about to burst by then.

She walked up to her, acting casual.

“Beauty, want to date me? Don’t let my young age fool you—I know all sorts of things. How about it?”

Seeing the little girl in front of her pretending to be an old hand.

And recalling what she posted on Weibo about why no guy had noticed her.

She knew the other was a straight girl.

But she wanted to try bending her.

So she agreed.

After the abrupt breakup, not many years later.

Xu Qingzhou dated a guy.

After that, she stopped thinking about getting back together.

She went abroad for her master’s and PhD.

When she returned and joined a private hospital as a dentist.

She opened Xu Qingzhou’s Weibo again and learned they had broken up long ago.

Since they had broken up, she wanted to give it one last try.

Because she still loved her.

She wanted to try one final time.

If it didn’t work, then that was it.

Listening to what the other said, Xu Qingzhou remained in a daze the whole time.

She hadn’t quite processed it yet. After all this, she had always thought she was the one who tricked her into treating her teeth, but it turned out to be a spy in the dish?

If that was the case, then her secret crush lasting eleven years made sense, right?

She wondered why back then a girl who looked so sweet kept dangling her student ID in front of her every day. Her tooth hurt so badly she could barely think straight, her mind a blank slate—who cared?

Picking a guy seemed unsafe; dating a girl was better.

At least it was safe.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, so she picked her.

Who knew it played right into her hands.

No wonder she agreed so quickly back then.

In the end, it was the lamb walking into the tiger’s mouth.