Chapter 135: Wrong Number

Xia Xi and Liang Yuan came out of the restroom one after another and headed to the table. Xia Xi shook water off her hands, turned to Liang Yuan, and said, "When we settle the bill later, I need to mention to the front desk that the restroom floor is too slippery—I almost fell."

Liang Yuan nodded vigorously: "Damn, I thought I was the only one who almost slipped!"

"Right, that floor really is unreasonable." Xia Xi stood by the booth, opened her bag, pinched out a pack of tissues with two fingers, pulled one out and handed it to Liang Yuan, then took one for herself to wipe her hands.

Zhou Du lifted his chin, pointed at the phone on the table, and said to Xia Xi, "Just now someone called you; you weren't here, so I answered for you."

"What did they say?" Xia Xi kept wiping her hands, instinctively thinking it was a family member calling.

Zhou Du shrugged and said incredulously, "I hadn't even gotten a chance to ask what they wanted before they hung up."

"A sales call?"

"No, it was a WeChat voice call, with the note 'a hypocrite.'" Zhou Du read out that name, couldn't help chuckling, "The voice sounded like a guy—are you a college classmate?"

Xia Xi froze, stiffly turned her neck, and asked in disbelief, "You—said—who?"

Zhou Du didn't know why her reaction was so intense; he paused, then repeated what he'd just said: "Didn't I say? A hypocrite called you on a voice call." He muttered, "How could anyone pick such a stupid nickname?"

Xia Xi felt as if an arrow had pierced her chest.

That was the note she had changed for Xu Yanfeng, altered just before the meal.

Wait, Xu Yanfeng called her?!

Xia Xi balled up the tissue she'd used to wipe her hands and tossed it onto the table, then grabbed her phone to check the chat log—Zhou Du hadn't lied; a few minutes earlier, Xu Yanfeng had indeed called her, and the call lasted only a little over a minute.

"Next time I go to the restroom I'll definitely remember to bring my phone!" Xia Xi said as she dialed back, filled with regret—Xu Yanfeng had made his first ever initiative call to her, and she'd missed it.

She really deserved to die.

However, the ringing went on for a long time, and no one answered on the other end.

Only a few minutes apart—had he gone off to be busy?

Xia Xi refused to believe it and kept dialing.

The result was the same—no one answered.

In Zhou Du's eyes, Xia Xi had her brows tightly knit, her fingernails between her teeth, looking both anxious and despondent—a sight rarely seen. He was truly puzzled: "Just who is this person?"

"Stupid as a pig." Liang Yuan pointed at him from across the table, "Do you even need to ask? Of course it's our Xi Xi's sweetheart—you can't even see that; are you pig-brained?"

"You've grown bold—try insulting me again."

"You are a stupid pig—am I wrong?" Liang Yuan tilted her head, wearing a provocative expression, "Who else? In high school math you scored 34, then secretly changed it to 84 with a red pen."

Zhou Du, flushed with anger, picked up a watermelon rind from the table and threw it at her.

Liang Yuan grabbed Xia Xi and pulled her behind her shoulder to take cover.

After a bout of laughing and messing around, the three left the hot pot restaurant, and on the way back Zhou Du took the wheel. The road was covered in a thick layer of snow; the tires crushed it, making a creaking sound as they went, leaving two deep tracks.

Xia Xi had already called Xu Yanfeng several times, but none were answered.

Seeing her persistence, Liang Yuan patted her shoulder and comforted her, "Maybe he's busy with something else, his phone isn't on him; once he sees it, he'll call you back."

Xia Xi felt something was off; she looked at the driver and asked, "Zhou Du, could you tell me again what he said then?"

Zhou Du thought she was making a mountain out of a molehill—just missing a call, is it really necessary to be this tense?

Although he thought that, he still faithfully reenacted the scene for her: "I answered politely, 'Hello, who is this?' He then asked if Xia Xi wasn't there; I said you were in the restroom, if you have something to say you can tell me, and he hung up. I swear, that's all I said—nothing else."

Xia Xi had watched two episodes of a variety show; as the time neared midnight, she turned off the tablet, picked up the phone beside her pillow, and hid under the covers to send a message to Xu Yanfeng.

Outside the window the cold wind howled; inside, a dim yellow lamp glowed. Xia Xi lay on her side, face pressed into the pillow, occasionally glancing at her phone, still waiting for Xu Yanfeng's reply, as if she wouldn't sleep unless he responded today.

"What time is it now? He surely couldn't have gone from dinner time till now without looking at his phone, could he?"

Xia Xi gripped the phone tightly; gradually drowsiness crept in, her eyelids half-closed, as if she'd fall asleep any second. She summoned a strong will to stay awake, closed her eyes for a moment, then snapped them open.

Just as she could barely hold on, her phone vibrated once.

She widened her eyes, hurriedly checked the message, and was greatly disappointed—it wasn't a reply from Xu Yanfeng, but a browser push of irrelevant news: some celebrity had announced a romance.

It had nothing to do with her.

She only cared about when her romance with Xu Yanfeng would begin.

She wasn't even sure what time she finally fell asleep; the lamp was left on, glowing all night. At eight the next morning, Xia Xi woke up, and the first thing she did was look at her phone.

Besides the few messages she had sent, the chat interface showed no sign of the reply she was hoping for.

Xia Xi sat up against the headboard, pulled the blanket up to her chest, and called Xu Yanfeng.

She silently swore that if he didn't answer her call again, she would buy a ticket and go to Nancheng!

Whether or not her curse had taken effect, at the exact moment the thought formed in her mind, the call was picked up, and a voice came through the earpiece—unreal-sounding, hoarse, low, as if the speaker had been walking alone through an icy snowscape for a long time.

"Hello…"

Xia Xi, however, froze, not knowing whether to be happy or to cry; she opened her mouth, forgot what she wanted to say, and the words came out one by one: "Ah, hello… hello, it's me."

"I know." Xu Yanfeng's tone was terrifyingly calm, like the attitude he had when they first met, "Why are you calling me?"

Xia Xi fidgeted with the little three‑dimensional flower embroidered on the duvet cover, her voice unusually soft: "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Today… oh, no, it was yesterday—you called me, I was out eating with friends and went to the restroom, so I missed it. Did you need something?" She felt his tone was too stern and tried to lighten the mood, "Or is it that you're on break, can't see me, and you miss me?"

Xu Yanfeng: "Wrong number."

Xia Xi: "……"

Her surge of enthusiasm was doused by his four words; he really was as usual, indifferent to others' lives.

Xia Xi, already immune to this, said, "Fine, then let's say you dialed the wrong number. But why didn't you return my later calls and messages? Are you really that busy? Too busy to even glance at your phone? I don't believe it."

"Xia Xi." Xu Yanfeng called her name in a flat tone, "You're not anyone to me, so I have no obligation to return your calls or messages. Please, get this straight."

A buzz rang in Xia Xi's head, and then she went blank.

A flicker of light flashed before her eyes, everything blurred; she felt as if she were back at Nan Guangchang that night waiting for him, the cold wind surging from all directions, the crowd of onlookers all around, yet she felt the whole world consisted of only her.

The call ended, and after a long while Xia Xi still hadn't reacted, still holding the phone to her ear, unmoving.

She had thought she was immune to his coldness and rejections, but it turned out she still cared.