Pampering You Even More - Chapter 1

It was an overcast day. Tong Jia, in a black dress, walked in with a bouquet. Suddenly, some people in the hall glanced over to her direction. The black dress makes her complexion more beautiful than snow. Even though she had no makeup on, her eyes looked bright. Zhou Heng leads her to a portrait. His eyelids were drooping, covering a trace of anger and sadness.

He subconsciously raised his head and glanced at Tong Jia. Her lips were very pale. Zhou Heng sighed in his heart when he couldn’t tell her that she looked beautiful. Perhaps for Yan Chen, as long as she could come over, he always would be very happy.

Tong Jia looked at the man in the portrait. Even though she was not very familiar with the former chemistry class representative, she felt a little sad at the moment. In her memory, Zhou Yanchen’s academic performance was very good. He always ranked first in the mock test every month. For her, since she hasn’t exchanged many words with him, he’s not the type who’d socialize much with other people.

He was actually quite handsome. Tong Jia put the bouquet aside and bowed three times. It’s not that she feels sorry for this man. When she was a student, he was handsome and had good grades. A few days ago, she heard from her best friend that he seemed to have started a company in partnership with other companies. She heard that he was doing well and his future was bright, but who would’ve known that such an unexpected accident would occur.

After the funeral, Tong Jia left with another classmate. Before leaving, she looked back at the portrait. She didn’t know why the sadness in her heart seemed to increase.

“I just want to cry when I see Zhou Yanchen’s parents.”

Her classmate, who was friends with her ever since they were attending school, said in a low voice. Fortunately, they still maintain a good relationship after so many years.

She wiped her eyes with a tissue whilst choking in her tears saying,

“You see, their home was located in a small country. Both of his parents were busy working, which is why they had only given Zhou Yanchen a home where he lives on his own. Even if so, he still managed on his own and had great achievements. When I imagine this kind of scene where a white-haird is sending a black-haired, my heart starts hurting in pain. Mother Zhou fainted from crying just now. I feel really sad about this myself, too.”

[TL/N: A white-haired sending a black-haired: (of an old person) to see one’s child die earlier than oneself]

As soon as she finished talking, Tong Jia couldn’t help but tear up. She had never understood something to an extent. One would never know which comes first, his tomorrow or his end.

“What happened that day? From what I heard, an accident happened when he was driving. Is that true?”

Tong Jia asked.

She used to see articles and videos about car accidents on the internet. But, she never expected that someday, a person acquainted with her would encounter such a thing. Just as how it was described on the internet, it really is a never-ending sadness.

Her classmate, Xiaomi, nodded with teary eyes saying,

“It happened on the day of our reunion. Zhou Yanchen said he couldn’t come because something happened, but we didn’t even know he’d participate in the class reunion so I asked. But then, while he was driving…”

Silence filled the atmosphere yet again. Even if they weren’t familiar with Zhou Yanchen, knowing that something like this happened, they felt unspeakable depression.

In the evening, Zhou Heng went to his university with two bottles of wine. He sat in the playground, covered his face with his hand saying,

“I really shouldn’t have called you that day. If I hadn’t told you that Tong Jia had returned to China, you wouldn’t have driven here. Dude, she came today, and I wanted to tell her. Just that and nothing else. I just felt like it would be a pity if she didn’t know. However, even though I was about to tell her everything, I still couldn’t say anything. I don’t think you want me to tell her either. If she knew, she would feel uncomfortable. You definitely don’t want to see her sad.”

Zhou Heng cried again. He took out his phone from his pocket, trembling. He saw Tong Jia’s phone number that he had noted during their reunion a few months back. He cruelly dialed the number, still trembling.

Tong Jia felt very exhausted today. She took off her shoes and walked barefoot to the living room. She had just sat down, yet her phone rang. It was Zhou Heng’s phone number. She hesitated for a while before picking it up. She answered in an uncertain voice,

“Zhou Heng?”

Based on her memory, she wasn’t very familiar with Zhou Heng and his group. Suddenly receiving a call from Zhou Heng out of the blue, she would, of course, be surprised.

“En, it’s me.”

Zhou Heng lied on the ground and asked in a hoarse voice,

“Tong Jia, do you remember Yan Chen? What I mean is, before this….funeral, did you still remember him?”

Tong Jia, startled by the question, unconsciously held the pillow while grasping its edge.

“Remember…Why are you asking? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, I was just asking because I can’t find anyone to talk to. Did I bother you?”

Hearing Tong Jia’s reply, Zhou Heng felt a little relieved.

He has not slept well these days. Whenever he closes his eyes, Zhou Yanchen’s face appears. He feels guilty. If it weren’t for him, Zhou Yanchen would still be alive and well. And, father Zhou and mother Zhou would not have to lose their child.

When she lowered her head, she was taken aback by the sight she saw. There was a pair of slippers beside her feet.

‘But, shouldn’t these slippers be by the door?’

Although it was summer, the temperature of the air conditioner of the room was a bit lower than usual too.

She came to a conclusion wherein she probably forgot to put them in the shoe cabinet this morning. And so, she quickly put on the slippers.
After she came to her senses, she quickly replied,

“No, no, I just got home. Make sure to restrain your grief.”

[TL/N: It’s a condolence phrase in Chinese which means, restrain your grief and accept fate.]

She knew that Zhou Heng had a strong bond with Zhou Yanchen. Hearing this 1.8 meter tall man weeping sadly, she felt uncomfortable. Because of this, she was able to understand Zhou Heng’s feelings.

Zhou Heng said while wiping his tears,
“Sorry, I disturbed you today. I’ll hang up first and invite you to dinner someday as an apology.”

He didn’t know what to say to her. No, actually, what is there to say? Say that Zhou Yanched liked you for so many years? Say that Zhou Yanchen came here because he wanted to see you so much to the point that he was overspeeding which, in turn, made him have a car accident? No, I shouldn’t tell her anything. Zhou Yanchen silently liked Tong Jia during his lifetime. He chose not to tell her, so as a good friend of his, he shouldn’t tell her.

He hung up. Tong Jia looked at her phone, disappointed.

Of course, she remembers Zhou Yanchen. How could she not remember?

A teenager who was so dazzling yet reticent. No matter which person remembers, they would describe him as a calm person.

Speaking of which, the only time she crossed paths with him was probably when they had an exam.

Although it is an ordinary mock test, because of the parents’ meeting, all the students consider it as something of great importance. Tong Jia, whose grades were in the average range, also panicked. At that time, she was in her first bloom of love with a boy in another class. Her grades dropped excessively.

During the exam, Tong Jia was in the same examination room as Zhou Yanchen and was sitting in front of her. When she took the math exam, she was covered in sweat when she couldn’t answer a few problems.

Tong Jia didn’t know how she summoned up the courage to do such a thing at that time. When the invigilator lowered his head and played with his mobile phone, she poked Zhou Yanchen’s back with a ballpoint pen. He turned his head, his cold eyes full of perplex.

She whispered, embarrassed,

“The last few questions…Can I have a look?”

Her voice was so low that Zhou Yanchen frowned and turned his head again.

Just when Tong Jia thought he must be scorning her, a piece of note appeared. Her body reacted faster than her consciousness, so she quickly squeezed the paper tightly in her hand.

Because of his help, she did well in the math exam and bagged the 15th rank in her class. After that, she wanted to thank Zhou Yanchen, but she was embarrassed to thank him for giving her the answers. During one of her morning exercises, she went to buy a bottle of nutri-express and put it on his desk.

Upon waking up from reminiscing the memory she had with him, Tong Jia went to the kitchen wearing slippers and opened the refrigerator to find something to eat. But, she found nothing except for mineral water. She didn’t want to order takeout food late at night either. When she finished changing her clothes and was ready to go out, an umbrella was by the door.

Tong Jia pondered. She bit her lower lip and tried to recall whether or not there was an umbrella here when she entered the door a while ago. However, she was not a person who paid attention to small details, so she couldn’t remember anything of that sort. But when she saw the umbrella, Tong Jia remembered the weather these days. It was cloudy all day today. Maybe, it will rain later. Tong Jia turned on her mobile phone, watched the weather for a while, and found out that there was indeed a thunderstorm today. She picked up her umbrella and prepared herself to go to the supermarket outside the neighborhood to buy something to eat.

In the elevator, she took out her mobile phone once again. The signal wasn’t very good there though. So, she didn’t exit her Weibo until she got out of the elevator.

She felt a bit strange, but she couldn’t figure out why.

When she got to the supermarket and bought fruits, she finally knew what was wrong!

When she was abroad, she often checked her Weibo account. She didn’t have that many followers, only around one or two hundred, but one follower will always give her a like on every post she made.

But a few days ago, when she posted on Weibo, that one follower never liked her post.

She was really curious, so she took advantage of the situation to find the man’s Weibo and clicked in to read.

Yan Jia pursed her lips. This person’s Weibo page all contained forwarded financial pieces of information, which was very boring——

After thinking about it, she clicked the like button under his new post.

When Tong Jia pushed the shopping cart to go to the checkout counter, a little boy sat in the shopping cart and pointed at her and said to his mother,

“Mom, that uncle is so strange, he is injured.”

Tong Jia turned her head and looked around. There were no uncles, only aunts. The little boy’s mother raised her hand and patted him on the head saying,

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Children nowadays really like to prank adults.

Tong Jia suddenly felt a cold chill at her back. She touched her arm and thought,

‘The temperature suddenly fell down. It’s really cold.’