Chapter 35: Lost Contact for a Week

Shi Kezhen lay on her bed, resigned to her fate, staring at the ceiling.

‘Let them deal with me however they want; I’m all alone anyway, with no weaknesses left, and I won’t accept any threats,’ she thought.

‘If they won’t let me go to school, then I won’t go.’

It wasn’t like she was studying a major she liked anyway.

She only regretted that her phone had also been confiscated; otherwise, Cheng could have kept her company during this period of lost freedom.

Thinking of Cheng…

Since she had sent that message yesterday afternoon, she had never logged into the Privacy Space again.

Based on her understanding of him, he had probably left her another pile of WeChat messages by now.

***

Shi Kezhen’s assumption was indeed correct.

Gao Cheng had been waiting since yesterday afternoon, and having received no reply from her, he had long been sitting on pins and needles.

He opened his chat with Yao, staring at the last message she had sent him.

Yao: – [Are you there? Keep me company.]

Gao Cheng was usually very quick to reply to her messages; even if he temporarily missed a message due to being busy, he would reply at the very first opportunity upon seeing it.

She was different; waiting for a reply from her was a matter of luck, and when luck was bad, he wouldn’t even get a single reply after waiting a whole day.

Had her phone run out of battery again?

Or had she left it behind once more?

He irritably flipped his phone face down on the desk.

In truth, he knew these were all just her excuses.

Nowadays, let alone young people, regardless of age or gender, who wouldn’t keep their phone with them at all times as long as they had one?

Yet he was simply unwilling to contemplate the most likely answer.

‘She just doesn’t want to talk to me.’

***

After Shi Kezhen left the hotel that day, she had returned straight to the Shi house and laid her cards on the table with Mother Shi.

Consequently, Shi Yanzhou had no idea that she hadn’t been to school for this entire week.

Not until Friday afternoon at five o’clock.

Shi Yanzhou had still received no phone call from Shi Kezhen, no messages whatsoever, and she hadn’t come to wait for him downstairs at his dormitory building either.

Instead, he felt a slight trace of bewilderment.

Strangely enough, for this entire week, she truly hadn’t hovered in front of him.

She hadn’t even sent a single call or message.

‘Is she really being that obedient to my words?’

‘Has she truly stopped pestering me?’

Inexplicably, aside from bewilderment, there was actually a tiny bit of unaccustomed awkwardness.

Waiting until half past five and still receiving no call or WeChat message from Shi Kezhen, Shi Yanzhou simply headed toward the school gates on his own.

As usual, he walked hand-in-hand with Li Yunshu to the school gates before parting ways.

Since Shi Kezhen wasn’t there, Li Yunshu was actually less clingy.

Unlike last week when she reluctantly dragged out their farewells for over ten minutes, this time she waved and said goodbye quite readily.

Uncle Li’s car was parked in a relatively conspicuous spot near the school gates.

Stepping out of the gates, Shi Yanzhou spotted it immediately, walked over, opened the door, sat down, and asked casually.

“Where is Shi Kezhen? Hasn’t she come out yet?”

Uncle Li glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

“Young Master, the young mistress is at home.”

Shi Yanzhou was stunned.

“At home? What do you mean?”

“It’s like this: Madam has requested a long leave of absence for the young mistress, so she won’t be returning to school anytime soon.”

“A long leave of absence? Why? For what reason?”

“Young Master, I’m not very clear either; once you return home, you can ask Madam yourself.”

Shi Yanzhou nodded, silent from then on.

***

Returning to the Shi house, Shi Yanzhou changed his shoes and walked into the living room.

Mother Shi was sitting on the sofa flipping through a magazine; there was no sign of Shi Kezhen.

“Mother, Uncle Li said Shi Kezhen is on a long leave of absence? Why?”

Setting down the magazine, Mother Shi spoke in a nonchalant tone.

“It’s nothing; she hasn’t been behaving lately, so I’m keeping her at home to personally teach her some discipline.”

Shi Yanzhou frowned.

“She isn’t behaving?”

Whatever his mother told her to do, she did, looking like a puppet on strings.

‘Is that still not behaving?’

‘What counts as behaving then?’

“Stay out of it,” Mother Shi waved her hand dismissively.

“She has met too many people since entering university, and her personality has grown wild.”

“She needs to be tempered thoroughly to smooth out that wildness.”

Shi Yanzhou didn’t understand what his mother was talking about, but he wasn’t particularly curious either.

It was better if Shi Kezhen didn’t go to school; she wouldn’t hover in front of him all the time, and Li Yunshu could be less jealous.

***

At dinner, Shi Kezhen finally appeared at the dining table.

Shi Yanzhou raised his head and spared her a glance.

Truth be told, having not seen her for nearly a week, he really felt a bit unaccustomed to it.

Unlike before, when he had either loathed her or treated her as transparent, he actually cast a few extra glances at her today.

After dinner, the two of them walked upstairs one after another.

Reaching the third floor, Shi Yanzhou unusually called out to stop her.

“What is going on with you?”

“Aren’t you always very obedient to my mother’s words?”

“Why would my mother suddenly say you aren’t behaving?”

Leaning against the corridor wall with his hands in his pockets, his tone carried an unaccustomed awkwardness.

“What did you do to make my mother angry?”

Shi Kezhen halted her steps, turning around to look at him.

She said nothing.

She looked at him for a moment, and then looked a bit longer.

Shi Yanzhou was left utterly bewildered by her gaze.

“Why do you keep staring at me?”

“I’m asking you a question.”

“Go ask Mother yourself.”

With that, she finally withdrew her gaze, turned around, and walked into her room.

“Bang.”

The door closed.

Shi Yanzhou stood frozen in place.

‘Did she just… slam the door in my face?’

‘I couldn’t have misidentified that, could I?’

The Shi Kezhen who had always kept her eyes lowered and behaved as submissively as a little kitten.

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