Thirsty Skin - Chapter 30

Chapter 30 -【Don’t Let Others Find Out】

On Saturday morning, Zhu Chizhou was sleeping in at home when Aunt Fan dragged a floor scrubber, which hummed in and out of the door of the room three times.

Zhu Chizhou pulled up the quilt to cover his head, and the buzzing sound outside started for the fourth time.

“Aunt Fan…” Zhu Chizhou shouted with his eyes closed.

Aunt Fan pushed the door open and half of her body leaned in: “Are you awake?”

Zhu Chizhou’s head was tilted on the pillow, his eyes were still closed, and he mumbled incoherently: “Did you kill someone at the door of my room? Are you destroying the body now?”

Aunt Fan laughed: “Stop talking nonsense. When you wake up, get up and have breakfast.”

It would have been fine if she hadn’t mentioned it, but after she did, he felt a little hungry, so Zhu Chizhou asked, “What do you want to eat?”

“Sandwich.”

Zhu Chizhou showed little interest, turned over and faced the door: “Then I’ll sleep a little longer.”

The blackout curtains were drawn tightly, with only a small ray of sunlight barely filtering through the gap, forming a thin bright line that fell quietly on the floor.

Aunt Fan went downstairs after cleaning. The room was very quiet. Apart from the slight breathing, there was almost no other sound.

Suddenly, the cell phone on the bedside table started to ring loudly. The person in the bed squirmed for a moment and stretched out his arm to reach for it.

He answered the call with his eyes closed but didn’t say anything. Ji Xun on the other end had already spoken: “Old Zheng drank too much and had stomach bleeding and was hospitalized. Let’s go see him this afternoon.”

Zhu Chizhou sobered up a little: “Who made him drink so much?”

Ji Xun sighed: “He has been drinking like this for a long time recently. I already told him that something bad will happen sooner or later.”

“Looking for business everywhere?”

“Yes, otherwise how can he pay off the money his father owes?”

Zhu Chizhou thought for a moment and asked, “What time do we go in the afternoon?”

“Two-thirty, are you home? I’ll drive over to pick you up.”

“Okay, I’m home.”

After answering the phone, his sleepiness completely disappeared. Zhu Chizhou propped himself up and leaned against the headboard to look at his phone for a few minutes, then got up and washed up.

When he went downstairs, he smelled a fragrance coming from the kitchen. Zhu Chizhou walked to the kitchen door with a cup of water and saw Ms. Zhu Ling wearing an apron and cooking. Aunt Fan stood beside her, filming her with her mobile phone.

Zhu Chizhou: “…”

Who puts on such exquisite makeup when cooking?

Zhu Chizhou asked: “Mom, are you going to be a food anchor?”

Zhu Ling shook the spoon very professionally and said, “The restaurant is short of people for editing the short video. I don’t have time to find someone, so I am shooting it myself.”

Ever since Lei Zhengting’s business grew, Zhu Ling had rarely cooked. In addition to taking care of the family, she also had to help Lei Zhengting deal with some business social activities. Over the years, the meals at home have been cooked by Aunt Fan.

But just by smelling this scent, you can tell that her cooking skills have definitely not fallen behind.

Zhu Chizhou was about to say a few words of praise when the oil in the pot suddenly exploded with a “pop”.

“Ouch!” Aunt Fan and Zhu Ling shouted at the same time.

Aunt Fan quickly put her cell phone on the stove, grabbed Zhu Ling’s hand to check the injury, and saw that a small red and swollen area had appeared on the back of her hand.

Zhu Chizhou shouted: “Hurry up and soak it in cold water!”

Zhu Ling reacted quickly and turned off the fire, and was pulled under the faucet by Aunt Fan.

Aunt Fan said, “I’ll go see if there’s any burn ointment.”

“I have it,” Zhu Chizhou put down the cup, “I’ll go get it!”

The burn ointment that Lin Wan bought for him last time had not been opened yet, so he ran upstairs to get it.

Aunt Fan tore open the seal and helped Zhu Ling apply the ointment, then put the burn ointment into her pocket.

Zhu Chizhou stretched out his hand to her and said, “Give it back to me. I’ll go out and buy a new one later.”

Aunt Fan asked, “You got burned too?”

Upon hearing this, Zhu Ling immediately looked over with concern.

“No,” Zhu Chizhou said a little uncomfortably, and continued to stretch out his hand, “Give it back to me anyway.”

Aunt Fan refused to give it to him, “You didn’t get burned, what do you want this for?”

“Not now, but what if I get burned someday?” Zhu Chizhou said, “I’ll keep it ready first.”

Aunt Fan: “It will become ineffective if you open it and leave it unused.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Zhu Chizhou’s ears turned red with suspicion, “I’m going to get it back anyway.”

Seeing that he looked unnatural, Zhu Ling deliberately asked, “When did you buy it?”

“I didn’t buy it…” Zhu Chizhou suddenly stopped talking, and simply reached into Aunt Fan’s pocket to take out the ointment. Fearing that his mother would ask more questions, he took the thing and turned away, leaving behind a sentence: “I’ll go out and buy it now!”

Looking at his embarrassed back, Zhu Ling and Aunt Fan looked at each other and said in unison: “Something’s going on!”

Zhu Chizhou drove to a drugstore two kilometers away and bought a tube of the same burn ointment and took it home. During lunch, Zhu Ling asked him again and again, but he refused to reveal the identity of the person who bought the ointment for him.

At around two o’clock, Ji Xun came to pick him up to go to the hospital to visit Zheng Zexun, and he quickly slipped away from Zhu Ling’s interrogation.

Zheng Zexun was admitted to a public hospital that enjoyed a national reputation and waa always crowded 24 hours a day.

The outside of the inpatient building was under renovation, so to get in, one had to go through the outpatient hall. Zhu Chizhou and Ji Xun squeezed into the surging crowd with their belongings, and with great difficulty arrived at the inpatient department, where they found Zheng Zexun, who was hospitalized in the gastroenterology department on the fourth floor.

It was a six-person room with the patient’s family members coming in and out. The white wooden door was wide open, and he could see a familiar face sitting in the bed by the window at the back.

Zhu Chizhou walked over with his long legs, put the stuff he had brought on the bedside table, and asked the patient: “Are you feeling better? Is it serious? What did the doctor say?”

Zheng Zexun glanced at Zhu Chizhou with a tired look and said, “It’s nothing serious. I won’t die.”

He was a bit fat and usually looked energetic, but now his cheeks were sunken, his face was pale, and he looked weak.

“Old Zheng,” Ji Xun came over and put down what he was holding, “I told you to drink less, but you didn’t listen to me. Now you’re vomiting blood!”

Zheng Zexun pulled the corner of his mouth halfheartedly and squinted at Zhu Chizhou: “What can I do? If I don’t drink, the business can’t be concluded. I don’t have a good father like our Lei family’s eldest young master, right, young master?”

When someone else said this, Zhu Chizhou thought he was joking, but Zheng Zexun’s father had just passed away less than a year ago, and there was absolutely no way Zheng Zexun would joke about his father.

Zhu Chizhou’s face changed, “Damn, Old Zheng you…” After a brief moment of confusion, Zhu Chizhou suddenly realized that it was Zheng Zexun who was blaming him.

The last time Zheng Zexun brought Chen Liming to see him, he wanted to get investment from Gengyan Capital. Chen Liming promised to give Zhu Chizhou a kickback, and he must have also promised to give Zheng Zexun a commission as the middleman.

At that time, Zhu Chizhou said that the project’s qualifications were too poor and would not pass the investment decision meeting, so he rejected Chen Liming. But not long after, Gengyan Capital invested in Qiuge Industrial, and Zhu Chizhou also worked with Director Lin to be responsible for the docking of this project.

Anyone who thinks about it would think that Zhu Chizhou deliberately embarrassed Zheng Zexun and didn’t want Zheng Zexun to make money.

“Old Zheng, it’s meaningless for you to talk like this,” Ji Xun couldn’t help but say before Zhu Chizhou could speak. “On the way here just now, Chizhou told me that he wanted you to find suppliers for his new restaurant! This is a long-term business, you should know how much you can earn in the middle! Last time, Chizhou didn’t expect that their company would invest later. There were indeed some special circumstances. We have been brothers for so many years, and you don’t trust this?”

Zhu Chizhou did not explain the special reason why they invested in Qiuge Industrial. He did not feel sorry for Zheng Zexun and did not want to waste his words on this matter. He just said, “If you believe me, I will talk to my mother.”

Zheng Zexun’s expression softened a bit. “Of course I didn’t doubt you. It’s just that I was a little surprised when Chen Liming said that their project passed the investment decision meeting of Gengyan Capital.”

“Because it was a decision made by the company’s top management,” Zhu Chizhou was speechless. “Damn it! You should have asked me earlier. You’ve been holding it in your heart for so long!”

Ji Xun agreed, “That’s right, do you f*cking treat us as brothers?”

Zheng Zexun’s smile finally reached his eyes, “After my family went bankrupt, you two are the only ones who still treat me as brothers!”

The three of them chatted for a while, and after accompanying Zheng Zexun to finish the infusion, Ji Xun and Zhu Chizhou left.

When going downstairs, Zhu Chizhou reminded Ji Xun: “The projects I just heard him talk about are a bit dangerous. It feels like he is testing the legal edge. You two are closer, so you should persuade him more and don’t let him go down such a dead end.”

Ji Xun and Zheng Zexun’s families are somewhat close, and in recent months Ji Xun had been helping Zheng Zexun find solutions everywhere. Naturally, he trusts Zheng Zexun’s character: “Old Zheng knows what’s going on. He will definitely not do anything illegal or criminal. You can rest assured about that.”

When walking back to the outpatient hall, Ji Xun suddenly stuffed the car keys into Zhu Chizhou’s hand and said anxiously: “I’m going to the toilet, you go to the car and wait for me first!”

Zhu Chizhou: “…”

Zhu Chizhou had no choice but to walk out alone with the car keys.

There were still a lot of people in the hall. There were more than a dozen long queues for people to get medicine and pay fees. Zhu Chizhou walked around the crowd and suddenly saw Lin Wan walking out from the front of one of the queues.

He was holding a bag containing medical reports in one hand and a few receipts in the other. Perhaps he was a little annoyed by the crowd, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his beautiful eyes behind the lenses looked tired.

Is this about the disease? What is the disease?

Wasn’t everything fine yesterday?

He put the report in such a big bag, could it be a serious illness?

Zhu Chizhou didn’t think much about it and shouted to the thin figure: “Lin Wan!”

When Lin Wan heard Zhu Chizhou’s voice, his body froze. He subconsciously protected the report bag between his body and arms, then slowly turned around and nodded to Zhu Chizhou calmly: “Chizhou, you are here too.”

【How come I met him here?!】

“Are you sick?” Zhu Chizhou asked anxiously.

“No, I’m here for a physical examination.” Lin Wan answered guiltily.

The company organized a physical examination for all employees more than a month ago. What kind of physical examination is he doing now?

Zhu Chizhou looked at his report bag, and Lin Wan hid the bag behind him.

【Help! I must not let anyone know that I have thirsty skin syndrome!】