Chapter 66: Confession

It’s not the number 1234, but one-one…

That evening, Xu Sui was busy taking care of Li Yang until midnight. When she finally had a moment to check her phone, she saw a message from Zhou Jingze. She thought he might be upset, but he wasn’t.

“Come home early. Do you want me to pick you up?”

Perhaps not waiting for a reply, two hours later, he sent another message: “Wear more clothes.”

Zhou Jingze didn’t get angry about the incident and continued as usual with their daily weather updates and chats. Over time, Xu Sui got used to it and occasionally confided in him about some things.

Tuesday was cloudy with rain. Xu Sui was busy in the operating room all day. Midway through, she patiently and seriously explained the patient’s current condition to their family, suggesting they transfer to Ruihe Hospital, which specializes in the treatment needed.

Instead, she was verbally abused by the family member for half an hour: “Are doctors now so easy? You can make money just by talking? I’ve been tossed around like a ball by you doctors, asking me to go to this department for tests, then to that department. It’s outrageous to suggest transferring hospitals. You’re useless. Where did you get your medical license, idiot! I’m going to complain about you…”

Xu Sui patiently explained to them but it was futile. Finally, the patient’s family member looked at her disdainfully: “At most, you’re just a machine. You don’t seem like a doctor at all, too indifferent.”

Xu Sui paused with her pen in hand, lowered her eyelashes, and her face turned slightly pale. She wanted to explain something but ended up saying nothing.

After work, a certain nerve that had been tense within Xu Sui snapped, and she felt relieved, slumping over her desk. After a while, Zhou Jingze called, and they talked for a bit.

Xu Sui’s voice sounded a bit low-spirited, holding back emotions she couldn’t express, so she told him about this incident. She lightly complained that the hard work wasn’t the main issue; the most frustrating part was being responsible and not getting the patient’s understanding, feeling somewhat aggrieved.

Zhou Jingze listened quietly on the other end, then said in a deep voice, “Come out.”

“Are you bringing me takeout again? I’m already off work.”

Just as Xu Sui was about to finish work, she put on her coat, packed up her bag, and walked out of the clinic building. As soon as she stepped out, a chilly wind blew, and Xu Sui couldn’t help but shiver.

Today’s weather was a bit nasty, with some drizzle.

As Xu Sui was about to take out her scarf from her bag to wrap around her head and dash out, she casually looked up and saw Zhou Jingze standing not far away under a black umbrella, waiting for her.

Zhou Jingze was wearing a black coat with a gray hoodie underneath, as if he had just had his hair styled. His short hair lay close to his scalp, still with that slightly mischievous look. He had one hand in his pocket, looking up at her.

Raindrops fell from the black umbrella, hitting the ground and creating small splashes. Under the black umbrella, a glimpse of fierce, dark eyebrows and eyes could be seen, his broad shoulders taking on a darker hue.

In a trance, Xu Sui seemed to see that boy again.

When they were together, he would come to pick her up in the rain like this, casually saying, “I’m jealous. You have to comfort me.”

Her heart fluttered for a moment.

“How did you come here?”

“I was on my way home when I called you,” Zhou Jingze walked up to her, looking at her with a smile, “Then I suddenly decided to take a turn.”

“Do you want to eat noodles?” Zhou Jingze asked her.

Xu Sui nodded. However, before two seconds had passed, he folded the umbrella, stood on the steps, and looked down at her teasingly.

“There’s a hand warmer in the left pocket, help yourself,” Zhou Jingze paused, then said nonchalantly, “Of course, my right hand is warmer.”

Xu Sui blinked and finally showed the first smile of the day. “I’ll choose the left.”

Zhou Jingze drove Xu Sui. They had not been on the main road in the city for long when the rain stopped. She rolled down the window, and the cool breeze after the rain made Xu Sui’s mood much brighter.

Zhou Jingze knew Xu Sui wasn’t in a good mood, so he quietly drove around, letting the wind blow. Eventually, they arrived near a food street. He turned the steering wheel slightly, found a parking spot not far away, and they got out of the car one after another.

The food street was to the right. Xu Sui walked ahead, and Zhou Jingze followed with his hands in his pockets. The ground was damp, and under the dim streetlights, their shadows occasionally overlapped.

The food street was bustling, with red and blue tents scattered around. An elderly man selling hot air balloons stood by the roadside, fingers hooked around a string.

The lightbox signs emitted different colors of light, and people on the street occasionally brushed shoulders. The aroma of barbecue wafted over from time to time.

It was bustling with excitement.

Xu Sui stopped at a fruit stall, intending to buy a box of cut fruits. Suddenly, a university student with a skateboard came over. He had handsome features, wearing a blue hoodie, exuding sunshine and vitality.

Because the young man also wanted to pick fruits, Xu Sui moved aside slightly.

Today, Xu Sui was wearing a beige woolen coat and a black skirt, looking elegant. She tied her hair in a high ponytail, revealing a fair and slender neck. As she bent down to pick fruits, the pearl earrings dangling from her ears swayed, highlighting the graceful curve of her neck, making people’s throats itch.

Still as attractive and slim as before, nothing missing to catch his attention.

Zhou Jingze stood not far away, waiting for her. He noticed the young man next to her staring directly at Xu Sui, his expression darkened. He extinguished the cigarette in his hand and walked over.

Just as Xu Sui was about to scan the QR code to pay the vendor using her phone, she suddenly felt someone grab her ponytail, pulling off her hair tie. In an instant, her long hair cascaded down, conveniently covering her beautiful neck.

“What are you doing?”

Xu Sui immediately went to snatch her hair tie. Zhou Jingze held the hair tie in his hand and, lowering his eyes to look, he saw that it was exactly the one she had taken last time. He stepped back, casually put it in his pocket, and smiled nonchalantly, saying, “Returning things to their rightful owner.”

Xu Sui pounced but missed, giving him an annoyed look. She really didn’t understand him—just a hair tie, what’s with this guy and old belongings?

The two arrived at a noodle shop, Xu Sui found an empty table, sat down, and the waiter brought tea. Zhou Jingze stood at the counter to order.

As Xu Sui diligently wiped the wooden table in front of her with a tissue, she overheard Zhou Jingze talking to the boss nearby.

“Boss, two bowls of fresh shrimp noodles,” Zhou Jingze said while holding his phone, looking at the menu on the opposite wall.

The landlady’s face reddened from the steam, she smiled and said, “Alright, please have a seat, it’ll be out soon.”

“Oh, and one bowl with extra green onions and cilantro, and one without,” Zhou Jingze paused, emphasizing.

Lost in her wiping, Xu Sui’s finger accidentally grazed a splinter on the wooden table, causing a small bead of blood to appear and a sharp pain.

She looked down, wiped off the blood with a tissue just as Zhou Jingze returned to sit. They faced each other and ate a bowl of noodles together, their atmosphere relatively pleasant as long as they avoided certain taboo topics. Xu Sui finished quickly, put down her chopsticks, wiped her mouth, and heard a vendor outside shouting about handmade sugar figures. She immediately got up, “You pay first, I’ll go buy a sugar figure.”

Xu Sui rushed out, leaving Zhou Jingze momentarily puzzled before continuing to eat slowly. After finishing and paying, he stood up and noticed Xu Sui had left her phone on the table.

Amused, Zhou Jingze thought, “She’s all grown up, yet still so forgetful.”

He picked up Xu Sui’s phone, intending to put it in his pocket, when he inadvertently unlocked the screen, revealing a missed call from an unfamiliar number in the evening—a number that happened to be his.

Zhou Jingze licked his teeth, smirked, his dark eyes hinting at a shade of gloom.

Great, doesn’t even save my number.

Struggling to catch up, Xu Sui found the sugar figure vendor and picked one shaped like a rabbit. She couldn’t resist taking a bite before fumbling to pay, then realized her phone was missing.

Feeling flustered and embarrassed, a calm voice interrupted, “How much, sir?”

“8 yuan.”

Xu Sui breathed a sigh of relief. After Zhou Jingze paid, he roughly pulled her aside. Dressed in black, he stood tall, looking down on her, a sense of superiority evident.

“Don’t have my number saved?”

Taking her phone back, Xu Sui replied, “Forgot, I’ll save it later.”

She said it but made no move.

As people hurried by, someone accidentally bumped into Xu Sui. The man instinctively held her by the waist. Xu Sui looked up at him, and Zhou Jingze nudged her forward, closing the gap between them.

Lowering his head to look at her, his sharp eyes locked onto hers, that mischievous look reemerged. He glanced around at the passing crowd.

“Want me to kiss you?”

Xu Sui’s heart skipped a beat, genuinely believing Zhou Jingze might do such a thing in public. She quickly freed herself, saying, “I’ll save it now.”

Reluctantly, under Zhou Jingze’s watchful gaze, she finally saved the number in her contacts, and only then did he let her go.

The two walked towards the parking area together, surrounded by college students due to the nearby snack street. Xu Sui casually glanced around and noticed a young couple not far away.

The guy, in a black hoodie with a crew cut, playfully tried to take something from his girlfriend’s hand and whispered something in her ear, making her blush uncontrollably.

It reminded her of the past.

Zhou Jingze, with his hands in his pockets, stared ahead, stunned. He kicked a stone and suddenly spoke warmly, “The problems you mentioned when we broke up—I found the answers.”

Avoiding the topic, Xu Sui replied, “That’s in the past.”

Her response was expected by Zhou Jingze, who lightly tugged at the corner of his mouth and said no more.

On Friday, unexpectedly sunny, Xu Sui headed to the flight training base for her usual class, only to find it deserted. She ran into Wu Fan, asking, “Where are the students?”

Wu Fan, stopping in his hurried steps, said, “Classes are canceled. Didn’t the boss tell you? There’s an airshow competition today.”

So what? Was it intentional for Zhou Jingze, as the base manager, not to inform her in advance about the schedule change or class cancellation, making her come all the way here for nothing?

In the morning, he clearly sent her a weather message, but he didn’t bring it up. Xu Sui felt a bit annoyed deep down, but she wasn’t the type to get angry for no reason, so she nodded and said, “Okay, then I’ll head back first.”

“Oh, Dr. Xu, where are you going? Aren’t you staying for the competition? It’s really fun,” Wu Fan enthusiastically invited, emphasizing, “The boss specifically asked me to bring you over.”

Xu Sui was about to decline, but Wu Fan pleaded with his eyes, as if saying, “Please don’t make things difficult for us,” so she reluctantly agreed.

After getting into the car, Wu Fan started the engine. The scenery along the West Suburb Road was beautiful. Xu Sui rolled down the window, applied two motion sickness patches behind her ears, and comfortably arrived at the West Suburb after a while.

The car drove for an hour and a half to reach the Jiu Fang Waterscape Light Field in the West Suburb. Despite living in Beijing for so many years, this was her first time coming here.

There was a vast water plaza here, surrounded by towering buildings. Each floor of the high-rise buildings had a glass mirror surface stacked on top of each other, reflecting the sunlight onto the water surface, creating a shimmering golden light.

In the north of the water surface, there was a semicircular grandstand that could accommodate nearly a thousand people, like an extra petal in the plaza.

Wu Fan led her to the spectator stands and explained, “This competition is quite exciting. Do you see the tower bridges in the water and the markers in the distance? The competition is between two teams, and the team with more score points wins, best of three rounds.”

Xu Sui nodded and chose a bright yellow chair to sit down. The weather was good today, with the sun shining brightly. The event started with a helicopter water display.

The sun was a bit glaring, so Xu Sui raised her hand to shield her eyes and watched attentively, applauding along with everyone else. The competition officially began with the red and blue teams.

The pilots maneuvered small helicopters, ascending high into the sky at times and then descending rapidly, passing through the tower bridges like leaping carps.

Applause erupted around them, and spectators took out their phones to record videos.

The stands were packed, and the plaza was crowded with onlookers. Reporters followed the event live throughout.

As Xu Sui watched earnestly, a figure suddenly loomed beside her. Zhou Jingze sat down next to her, leaning slightly forward with his elbows on his thighs, squinting as he looked at the airplanes in the distance, speaking casually,

“Who do you bet on to win?”

Actually, Xu Sui didn’t understand the rules of the competition at all, but that didn’t stop her from teasing Zhou Jingze. Since he liked red, she paused and said, “I bet on the blue team.”

“Alright,” Zhou Jingze nodded, unwrapping a candy and popping it into his mouth, “Let’s make a bet. If I win, you have to promise me something, okay?”

Looking at him, Zhou Jingze raised an eyebrow, flicked the candy wrapper with his fingertip, and said, “Don’t worry, it’s a reasonable request.”

“Sure, but if you lose, you’ll drop the pursuit,” Xu Sui’s words immediately took control of the situation.

Zhou Jingze’s eyelid twitched, he looked at her seriously, and finally lowered his head, tugging at the corner of his mouth, “I won’t lose.”

If he lost this time, he would ruin his own hands. What kind of pilot would he be for the rest of his life?

Zhou Jingze didn’t stay long beside her. Because of this bet, Xu Sui began to watch the competition seriously. Looking around, the blue airplane seemed like a spaceship in the sky, weaving gracefully around the tower bridges, and ending with an aerial spin.

The red airplane was also impressive, but its maneuvers seemed a bit aggressive. Xu Sui worried that it might collide with the markers, but each time, the red airplane skillfully avoided them.

The final score was tied at 1:1.

In the third round, cheers suddenly erupted from the crowd. Xu Sui squinted and saw Zhou Jingze in a striking red and white flight suit, his dark eyebrows sharp, striding confidently toward the plane. The golden thread embroidered airplane badge on his left shoulder sparkled in the sunlight.

He held a black helmet in one hand, put on a headset with the other, tapped the microphone with his slender fingertips to check the communication, and finally stepped into the cockpit.

Seeing a handsome man arrive during a crucial match, the media immediately pointed their cameras at him. Zhou Jingze remained composed, but suddenly turned around in the crowd, locking eyes with Xu Sui.

Before this bet, Xu Sui had no idea Zhou Jingze would show up at a critical moment. He clearly tricked her into betting; that was against the rules.

Caught by his gaze, Xu Sui wasn’t as shy as she used to be in college. Instead, sitting in the stands, she raised her middle finger toward him, smiling.

It was a wish for him to lose.

Zhou Jingze was taken aback, then smirked mischievously.

The airplane was red and white with “G-350” engraved on its fuselage, slowly ascending and spiraling upward into the sky.

Zhou Jingze’s G-350, cruising leisurely in the air, made a slow circle just as everyone’s attention was fixed on the blue plane.

The red helicopter suddenly dove down, skimming over the water’s surface, heading straight for the tower bridge, causing just a few splashes. Zhou Jingze’s flying mirrored his personality—steady yet with a hint of daring. From afar, the red aircraft looked like a light dragonfly, elegantly soaring, circling the tower, and side-sweeping.

Every move he executed was executed beautifully. Xusui tallied the points and, as expected, the red team won. Sitting in the stands, Xusui looked listless, propping her cheek with her hand, her eyes downcast, lost in thought about what Zhou Jingze might ask of her.

Suddenly, the audience erupted in cheers and screams. A girl seated to her right was so excited, she exclaimed, “Wow, is this a confession? It’s so romantic!” Someone echoed, “Yeah, but what is the G-350 writing in the sky, a dash?”

Xusui’s eyelids twitched, and she slowly raised her gaze. The sun was radiant, the sky vast and blue, the weather so perfect it seemed the whole world was giving way. The red plane in the sky left a trail of smoke, pausing intermittently to form letters.

It wasn’t the number “1” or the dash commonly seen in Chinese punctuation marks. It was “yi yi”—her nickname, unique and singular.

Xusui’s previously calm heart was stirred once more, uncontrollably jumping like electricity coursing through her. She remembered the other night when they stumbled upon a young couple. He said, “The questions you asked back then, I’ve found the answers.”

Zhou Jingze was telling her that she was his only one.

In the audience, everyone stood up, applauding, some taking photos to share on social media. Amidst the excitement, Xusui quietly picked up her bag and slipped away from the scene.

She planned to exit through a side door and spotted a restroom around the corner. She went in to wash her hands and, as she came out, she was drying her hands with a tissue, heading out through the side door.

When she looked down, a pair of shiny shoes appeared before her eyes. Xusui turned to run, but the man grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him, lowering his head to meet her gaze, unable to tell whose breath was more agitated.

“What are you hiding from, hmm? Don’t tell me you don’t feel anything.”