Chapter 27: Give Me a Cigarette

At this moment, the woman opened the door of the private room with her phone in hand. Everyone inside was gathered together talking.

The overall atmosphere was still relatively calm. It seemed she was indeed the first to discover this WeChat Moments post.

“Sisters and brothers, big news!” The woman walked into the private room and announced loudly, her expression full of exaggeration.

It’s worth noting that in this private room, there were a few male students who had secretly admired Wang Zhao back then. However, before these secret crushes could even sprout, they were already nipped in the bud. Because less than half a year after entering school, the news of Chen Fangli and Wang Zhao’s relationship had spread throughout the campus.

Their university’s law program was already a top-tier major, and the big shots in scientific research from the college were all showcased on the official website. Wang Zhao’s mentor during her university years was a big figure in the legal world, who also held some positions in official organizations. So, as a prized student, she would definitely participate in some academic research. She had already published two papers during her undergraduate years, one of which was published in an authoritative journal. She had long been a legend among her seniors and juniors.

However, when they announced their relationship, they were still in their freshman year, just entered the school, and there wasn’t much progress in academic work. Wang Zhao purely became popular on campus because of her face, becoming a veritable icon of Jiang University.

When her paper was published in junior year, she immediately became a figure of worship among the students in the law school.

People called her a badass.

The people in the private room were attracted by the woman’s words and laughingly asked what big news had happened. Xu Yingchun had just returned from outside when she heard Zhang Yan Yao Yue’s loud voice.

“Wang Zhao got married!” This sentence resonated throughout the entire private room. For a moment, Xu Yingchun felt that the footsteps of the people around her paused for a bit before continuing forward.

Before the people in the private room could respond or ask questions, they saw Xu Yingchun standing at the door with another young man dressed in casual attire.

The man’s gaze fell on Yao Yue, who was speaking. Just as the woman was about to laugh awkwardly and greet him, the young man turned his gaze away first and walked into the private room, smiling at the woman standing to the side, “After so many years, Yao Yue, you still have this personality, not much has changed.”

Yao Yue laughed awkwardly, lowering the phone in her hand. The matter of Wang Zhao was put aside and no longer mentioned. She looked at Xu Yingchun with some surprise. She hadn’t heard before that Chen Fangli was coming, otherwise she wouldn’t have announced this matter so dramatically. She wasn’t brain-dead after all.

Moreover, she had initially suspected that Wang Zhao’s marriage partner wasn’t Chen Fangli. After all, this person had been abroad all along, with no signs of returning. Yao Yue had thought that Wang Zhao and Chen Fangli had broken up due to their long-distance relationship, and she had found a new partner to marry.

However, now seeing Chen Fangli, Yao Yue was a bit unsure and felt that her thoughts might have been problematic. The relationship between these two in college was so good, they were always together. They all joked that after graduation, this couple would probably be the first to get married, and they would definitely give more wedding gifts.

So at this moment, she thought Chen Fangli had specially returned to the country to get married and register.

Yao Yue came to her senses and smiled at the man who had already walked into the room, saying, “When did you come back? You didn’t even say anything in the group chat. Is it only the class monitor who can contact you?”

Chen Fangli smiled without saying a word.

It was actually a coincidence. When he was in England, he received an email from Xu Yingchun. At that time, he hadn’t decided whether to return to the country or not. Everything was still in the process of being handled, the law firm there was also a bit busy, and work was still in the handover stage. It was only after landing and recovering from jet lag that he remembered this matter.

When contacting him via email before, Xu Yingchun had mentioned that Wang Zhao would also attend this class reunion. Of course, this sentence was embedded in a long string of text, as if casually mentioned, without being very obvious, but Chen Fangli still noticed Xu Yingchun’s intention.

In fact, he hadn’t heard this person’s name for a very long time.

Too long.

Maybe it had been more than a year? Actually, if calculated carefully, it was just over half a year, but Chen Fangli felt as if more than a year had passed, during which he had spent countless holidays without Wang Zhao’s company.

It had been too long since their last argument. It was the most intense argument between the two, each on opposite sides of the ocean, on the phone, both of their tones filled with indescribable fatigue and exhaustion.

Perhaps it was the long-term long-distance relationship, or perhaps it was Wang Zhao’s busy work. During that period, he often couldn’t contact her. Sometimes he would send a message and not get a reply for a whole day. The next morning, he would get a casual answer, just a few words, which seemed full of perfunctory dismissal to him.

Perhaps it was because his studies had reached a critical point, with daily assignments and papers piling up. Neither of them could reach an emotional balance, so the argument erupted in that early morning. Chen Fangli said “break up” for the first time, and Wang Zhao didn’t deny it.

The two then hung up the phone in silence.

After that, Wang Zhao indeed never contacted him again, and Chen Fangli, as if holding onto a grudge, didn’t want to be the first to give in. In the beginning, he still wasn’t quite used to it, often checking his phone, looking at the chat history with Wang Zhao, trying to search for news about her online.

Lying in bed at night, he would inadvertently feel sad, thinking of Wang Zhao. She was truly cold-hearted. Just because of one mention of breaking up on the phone, she didn’t even try to salvage the relationship, ending their six-year-long relationship without sending him a single message during this time.

It was as if he was the only one struggling with this relationship.

Chen Fangli was also a person with dignity, and quite ambitious. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have given up the offer he had at the time to go abroad alone for further studies, just to seek better development.

He couldn’t bear to see himself deteriorate because of emotions, so he could only keep himself busy. He found a job through a friend’s introduction, interning at a small law firm. After work, he would also attend some parties he had never participated in before, leaving himself no extra energy to think about other things.

Busyness and time are good remedies.