WRA CH45

Chapter 45: Hubby Seems Crazy, Run!

Xiang Zhen looked at Zhou Sicheng with a panicked little face, forgetting everything in an instant: “Hubby, have you gone crazy?”

Fan Hao interjected: “He’s definitely crazy. The way he resigned on the spot and walked out, I thought he was going to jump off the building!”

Xiang Zhen was truly frightened by Fan Hao’s words: “Resigned?”

Fan Hao: “He just publicly resigned from his position as CEO! He’s unemployed now!”

Xiang Zhen’s throat felt as if it were being choked. With a sudden, inexplicably huge surge of temper, he closed his eyes, bit down on the second joint of his index finger, and breathed deeply.

Zhou Sicheng pulled out his abused finger, pinched his cheek, and said gently: “Don’t listen to his nonsense. I will stay with you until you’re cured.”

Zhou Sicheng crouched down: “I’m not doing it anymore. Let’s go home.”

“Hubby, don’t…” Xiang Zhen looked at Zhou Sicheng’s broad back. It was what he yearned for, but also what he feared.

Seeing him dawdle, Zhou Sicheng directly reached back with both hands, hooked his thighs, hoisted him up onto his back with a burst of strength, and strode toward the elevator.

On his back, Xiang Zhen recalled the Zhou Sicheng in the conference room. The three-piece suit that could only be admired from afar was now beneath his palms; the lofty, unattainable Zhou Sicheng was right in front of his eyes.

Zhou Sicheng had resigned for his sake.

For a moment, he was both overwhelmed with emotion and deeply saddened. He reached out and covered his mouth.

Noticing that he had let go with one hand, Zhou Sicheng figured he was using it to cover his mouth. “If you want to throw up, just throw up.”

The next second, a damp heat spread across his shoulder.

It fell like freezing rain upon Zhou Sicheng’s heart.

His meticulously prepared suit—if he had known, why bother ironing it? He might as well have just worn the shirt his wife had slept in.

Zhou Sicheng: “That’s once. I won’t eat for a day.”

Xiang Zhen was almost in tears. Zhou Sicheng was too much, letting him finish throwing up before saying that. “Hubby, don’t count… don’t starve yourself.”

Humans would die if they didn’t eat.

When they left the house in the morning, the couple was dressed head-to-toe in bespoke suits worth millions. At this moment, both were stained with vomit; anyone on the street looked more dignified than them.

Zhou Sicheng entered the elevator and pressed the button for the second basement floor. In the elevator mirrors, the wretched state between him and Xiang Zhen was clearly reflected, as was the breakdown in both of their eyes: “This is what I owe you.”

Xiang Zhen climbed up a bit higher. Enduring the nausea, he wrapped both arms around his husband’s head—an active, intimate embrace he hadn’t initiated in a long time. Tilting his head, he looked at Zhou Sicheng with wide, teary eyes.

“Hubby, don’t force me.”

“I am going to force you!”

Zhou Sicheng was precisely exploiting Xiang Zhen’s soft-heartedness and love to force the disgust to the ends of the earth.

The capitalist tactic of forcing a choice between two evils—he was using it on his own wife. He was a despicable villain.

Xiang Zhen closed his eyes, not daring to look at the dazzling sun anymore. Like a flower wilted by the heat, he slumped shrinkingly onto Zhou Sicheng’s back.

When getting into the car, he refused the passenger seat. The moment Zhou Sicheng set him down, he scrambled into the back seat as if the passenger seat burned his butt. He curled up his legs, turning his back to Zhou Sicheng and lying facing the backrest.

He could not throw up again today.

Zhou Sicheng held the passenger door with one hand, stayed silent for a moment, and closed the door.

How else could he force him?

Xiang Zhen wasn’t cooperating.

Upon arriving home, Xiang Zhen didn’t need Zhou Sicheng to point the way. He had lived here for a month and spent that month searching for his husband. In that month, he had even found the safe at home and figured out its passcode; the only thing he hadn’t managed to touch a single hair of was Zhou Sicheng.

He was already more familiar with this house than Zhou Sicheng.

Xiang Zhen ran very, very quickly to the bedroom, encountering more bodyguards along the way than before.

Zhou Sicheng, afraid of his resistance and escape, had come prepared.

He went to the bathroom to rinse his mouth, took off his clothes, and bolted to the bed. Adopting a kneeling posture, he wrapped himself up in the quilt like a zongzi.

This way, if Zhou Sicheng fought for the quilt and pulled it off, he at least wouldn’t be facing Zhou Sicheng directly.

He couldn’t look at his husband anymore; he couldn’t throw up anymore.

If he didn’t restrain himself, he would rack up a lethal number of times for Zhou Sicheng today.

Hubby really died too easily.

Zhou Sicheng followed a step behind. The summer silk quilt was very thin, clearly outlining Xiang Zhen’s posture.

It was the look of a frightened child hiding under the covers.

Zhou Sicheng: “Zhenzhen.”

Xiang Zhen didn’t respond.

Zhou Sicheng sat at the foot of the bed, resting his forearms on his knees, experiencing a rare, crushing defeat.

If he didn’t push Xiang Zhen, they could still have an online romance like the sun and the moon—never meeting, but in love.

Was he resigned to that? Zhou Sicheng asked himself: Are you content with that?

Every drop of blood in his body screamed no.

“Tell Xiao Kui Bao what you want to eat tonight,” Zhou Sicheng said softly, patting Xiang Zhen’s butt through the quilt.

His main goal wasn’t to torment Xiang Zhen into vomiting endlessly.

Zhou Sicheng wanted to torment himself. As long as they saw each other once a day, it was enough for him not to eat for a day.

“No capitalist would starve himself to death, so you don’t need to worry too much,” Zhou Sicheng added.

Xiang Zhen still didn’t speak; he refused to talk to Zhou Sicheng.

Zhou Sicheng got up and left. Having abruptly announced his retreat behind the scenes, there were still many subsequent handover tasks he needed to handle.

It wasn’t actually rare for the largest shareholder of a massive conglomerate to step down from the top position and retreat behind the scenes; it was just that Zhou Sicheng was still too young, and the public felt he would at least work for another ten years or so.

Such a massive matter couldn’t possibly be hidden from the old man.

Zhou Sicheng glanced at his phone; there were countless incoming calls, and Zhou Qingyun had called three times.

Zhou Sicheng returned the call.

Zhou Qingyun had only five words: “Utter nonsense! Get back here!”

Zhou Sicheng gave a light laugh. At this point, what could the old man possibly threaten him with?

Both logically and emotionally, Zhou Sicheng had to make a trip back to the old mansion. There were some things he still needed to say.

…

Leaning on his cane, Zhou Qingyun was about to explode with anger. That little brat had fought him tooth and nail back then to seize control of the Zhoufu Group, and now he was tossing it away just like that!

Zhou Sicheng walked in from the door.

Zhou Qingyun immediately smashed a teacup to assert his dominance.

Looking at the teacup shattered two meters away from him, Zhou Sicheng raised an eyebrow.

Zhou Qingyun: “What on earth are you trying to do?! Do you think I don’t know you’re keeping a so-and-so?! I turned a blind eye, but that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want! Only someone from our Zhou family can sit in the CEO’s seat of the Zhoufu Group!”

“Do you have any idea how much blood and sweat your parents poured into designing that equity structure for actual control? Are you doing right by them?!”

Zhou Sicheng closed his eyes: “I think they would understand.”

Zhou Qingyun: “I don’t understand.”

Zhou Sicheng said earnestly: “Grandpa, I’ve thought about it for sixteen years. I still feel that love is more important than money.”

Zhou Qingyun sneered: “You little bastard, why don’t you give all the money back to me, then! Go be a pauper!”

Zhou Sicheng took out an equity transfer agreement: “All of the Zhoufu equity, I can return to you.”

Zhou Qingyun was taken aback, but immediately figured it out: “To me? Banking on the fact that you’re my only grandson, huh?! When I die, won’t it still be yours?! Don’t put on a fucking act in front of me!”

Zhou Sicheng: “That’s true.”

Zhou Qingyun was furious to the point of death. A grandson who wanted absolutely nothing was invincible; he couldn’t even find the words to curse at him.

Zhou Sicheng said slowly: “I love someone, but being with him conflicts with my identity.”

At this point, Zhou Sicheng had gained a bit more patience. Even if his grandfather couldn’t understand his thoughts, he genuinely had the desire to confide his troubles to an elder. This was the only elder he had left. Whether he liked hearing it or not didn’t matter; Zhou Sicheng couldn’t even manage his own feelings right now.

Zhou Sicheng: “He seems to only like the penniless version of me.”

Zhou Qingyun sneered: “There’s actually such a person! It’s a pig-butchering scam arranged by the Vice President, isn’t it!”

Zhou Sicheng: “He really is as robotic as Xiao Kui Bao sometimes.”

Zhou Qingyun was certain: “He was definitely trained by Wang Jianbin!”

Zhou Sicheng: “He is very cute. A proletarian warrior.”

Zhou Qingyun wanted to smash his cane over his love-struck brain.

Zhou Sicheng: “I want to be with him. He doesn’t like me as a capitalist, and I’m out of options.”

Zhou Qingyun saw the exact same expression in his grandson’s eyes as sixteen years ago, and was suddenly stunned.

For how many years had this grandson presented a tough, cold image to the world? Zhou Qingyun realized belatedly that his grandson was crying to him about the troubles of his first love. Although he hadn’t cried out loud yet, he looked like he was about to.

He really was cut from the same cloth as his parents, hugging each other even in death, their bones inseparable.

In an instant, Zhou Qingyun felt his own old age. After his first wife died, he never remarried; he only had one son, Zhou Qian, and when his son died, his demands on Zhou Sicheng became exceptionally high.

Under high-pressure control, once the grandson fell in love, he became utterly reckless.

Zhou Qingyun stubbornly said: “Nobody doesn’t love money. You should look for other reasons.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Grandpa, between wealth, power, and you, I would also choose you.”

Zhou Qingyun was taken aback. Hearing such a line at the ripe age of seventy really was…

“Get out, get out, get out.”

Zhou Sicheng pinched his forehead: “I do indeed have a lot of things to be busy with. I came today specifically to explain it to you, so I’ll take my leave now.”

He paused, and said to Zhou Qingyun: “Grandpa, it seems I’m still a bit more like you.”

Zhou Qingyun: “What do you mean?”

Zhou Sicheng didn’t explain, and strode away.

He was more like Zhou Qingyun. He seemed unable to be like Zhou Qian, allowing Zheng Ai to follow an expedition team into the undeveloped mountainous region of the Greater Khingan Mountains for months at a time.

He couldn’t let go of Xiang Zhen. Even in the middle of the night, he would wake up startled out of fear that his wife might be carried off by a wild boar.

He had an endless desire to control Xiang Zhen; this was all fed to him bite by bite by Xiang Zhen, and he simply went along with it.

Zhou Sicheng spent the day handling the handover.

The two were locked in a stalemate here.

The next morning, the skies over Haicheng were treacherous, brewing a thunderstorm.

It took Zhou Sicheng a great deal of effort just to dig Xiang Zhen out of the covers to take one look at him.

Xiang Zhen clutched the quilt tightly, hearing Zhou Sicheng’s muffled and cruel voice: “It’s fine if you don’t look at me, I’ll just count it as you having thrown up.”

Xiang Zhen pressed his head heavily into the pillow. Then wouldn’t he be at a loss?!

He got one less look at his husband, yet his husband didn’t eat for an extra day.

Zhou Sicheng hadn’t eaten for twenty-four hours.

Xiang Zhen calculated, burning with anxiety.

He heard Zhou Sicheng drag an armchair to sit by the bed, and then he didn’t move.

Xiao Kui Bao: “Master, you haven’t drunk water for a day. Water is the source of life, please remember to drink water.”

Xiang Zhen asked anxiously from under the covers: “You’re not even drinking water?”

Zhou Sicheng: “No.”

By 8 PM, Zhou Sicheng had gone 36 hours without food or water. He looked to be in decent shape, reading a book, though his lips were a bit dry.

Xiang Zhen slipped out of the covers and stole a glance in the dim light of the night lamp. Accidentally meeting Zhou Sicheng’s resolute, torch-like gaze, his lower abdomen spasmed, and he accidentally dry-heaved.

Zhou Sicheng actually managed a smile: “Very good. No need to eat tomorrow either.”

Xiang Zhen wanted to argue fiercely—he clearly hadn’t actually thrown up!—but was afraid that talking would turn it into real vomiting.

Outside, thunder rolled and rain poured; fierce winds rattled the windows.

Xiang Zhen shivered.

Zhou Sicheng instinctively reached out, wanting to hold Xiang Zhen. Xiang Zhen was afraid of thunder.

He stood up abruptly, but due to low blood sugar, his movements were slightly sluggish. Holding Xiang Zhen now would only be counterproductive, so he could only sit back down.

“Hubby is here. Don’t be afraid.”

Xiang Zhen: “Mn.”

The thunder grew louder and louder, and the lightning flashed abruptly and brilliantly.

Seeing his wife trembling in waves under the covers with the thunder, a massive sense of powerlessness washed over Zhou Sicheng’s heart.

What could he change by tormenting the two of them to the brink of death like this?

If it were someone else—a man with an ordinary income and an ordinary family background—he could hold Xiang Zhen in his arms right now, cover his ears, and tell him not to be afraid.

When held in an embrace, when their bodies were pressed together, Xiang Zhen wouldn’t be afraid anymore.

Just the thought of this possibility sent heartache pulsing through his vital organs. A sudden, violent cramp of agonizing pain struck Zhou Sicheng’s stomach, causing him to double over, and the book on his knees crashed to the floor.

Hearing the commotion, Xiang Zhen threw off the quilt. Seeing his husband’s pained expression, he panicked intensely. Was his hubby about to starve to death? He squatted at Zhou Sicheng’s feet, reaching out to cover his stomach, channeling sunlight power from the palm of his hand into Zhou Sicheng.

“Hubby, will you drink some warm water? I’m begging you.”

Zhou Sicheng suddenly gripped his hand tightly, his voice hoarse: “Do you still want to throw up?”

Xiang Zhen jerked his head away, “I… I don’t…”

Zhou Sicheng saw him grinding the diamond face of the ring fiercely into his thigh, using pain to suppress the nausea.

Hardening his heart, Zhou Sicheng closed his eyes: “I’m not drinking.”

Xiang Zhen froze in place.

Suddenly, a massive, tearing bolt of lightning struck down, and the entire villa went dark for a split second.

Xiang Zhen: “Hubby, I will come back.”

What?!

Zhou Sicheng hurriedly opened his eyes, but when the villa lit up again after the short circuit, the space before him was completely empty; only the delayed echo of thunder remained.

Zhou Sicheng instantly went mad.

The entire villa was brightly lit, with dozens of bodyguards searching for Xiang Zhen together.

Nothing, he was nowhere to be found!

Zhou Sicheng rushed out the door. He drove to search outside, and passing by the sunflower grove, he suddenly stopped.

He had a premonition that Xiang Zhen was here.

In such a short time, he couldn’t possibly have escaped the villa.

Torrential rain poured down, battering the sunflowers until they leaned crookedly in all directions.

Xiang Zhen had transformed into a sunflower identical to his kin, hiding amidst the sunflower bushes.

He watched helplessly as Zhou Sicheng approached through the rain, his heart jumping into his throat; never in his life had he been so nervous.

How did Zhou Sicheng find out! Thank goodness he looked exactly the same!

Countless high-beam flashlights and searchlights swept across this pitch-black cluster of flowers. Xiang Zhen didn’t dare move an inch, tilting along with the angle of the wind and rain. The rainwater battered against his flower disc, bringing a sticky, painful sensation.

“Zhenzhen.” Zhou Sicheng inspected them stalk by stalk, his gaze razor-sharp, ready to dig three feet into the ground.

Suddenly, a blinding reflection bounced off the strong beam of the flashlight.

The fire-like sparkle of a diamond flashed past and was caught by Zhou Sicheng.

Zhou Sicheng stopped and turned his head to look to the right: “Search here.”

It was Xiang Zhen’s hair clip; he was right here.

Xiang Zhen realized it too and hastily shook off the hair clip. Oh no!

The hair clip was flung a meter away.

With so many bodyguards, finding a hair clip was incredibly easy. Xiang Zhen didn’t even dare to breathe, only able to watch as Zhou Sicheng pushed aside the sunflower bushes, stepping closer and closer until he was right in front of him.