Chapter 64: A One-Day Trip to the Zoo
“Hello, is this Zhou Lin?”
“Yes.”
The other three people at the table also looked confused as the person on the phone continued,
“Tomorrow, come to the district police station if you have time...”
The delicious barbecue had not even all arrived yet, but this sudden phone call instantly pushed the atmosphere to its peak.
After the call ended with a beep, two beer bottles were smashed open before anyone even had time to use a bottle opener.
“Good and evil always get their reward.”
“Heaven’s justice comes around eventually.”
“If you don’t believe it, just look up.”
“No one escapes karma!”
The four of them each said one line dramatically. They were so happy for Zheng Qi that they no longer cared how childish they sounded.
Late at night, Zhou Lin returned home slightly drunk, swaying with every step as he reached the front door.
Zheng Qi was a classic night owl who slept late and woke up late. At this hour, it was still far from bedtime for her.
Hearing the door open, she quickly lowered the skirt she had been lifting absentmindedly.
“You’re still awake?”
“I woke up late this morning, so I’m not sleepy yet.”
“You must be hungry. I brought some food back. Not sure if you’ll like it.”
Zhou Lin smiled honestly and placed a plastic bag in front of her.
Zheng Qi leaned closer and smelled it. Since she loved seafood, excitement immediately flashed across her face.
“Garlic scallops?”
Zhou Lin’s gaze did not move, but the scenery in front of him suddenly changed.
Zheng Qi usually liked wearing revealing clothes. Now that she was living under the same roof with a man, she had already restrained herself a lot. She had packed away all the camisoles and tube tops and deliberately changed into T-shirts she once labeled as “too much fabric.”
Unfortunately, the collar of this shirt seemed a little too loose. The moment she lowered her head...
Before Zheng Qi noticed, Zhou Lin quickly shook his head and looked away to avoid embarrassment.
If it had been something else, maybe she would not care. Eating at night was the easiest way to gain weight, and as a model, maintaining her figure was extremely important.
But seafood was her weakness.
Forget maintaining weight.
That could wait until tomorrow!
She opened the food container and picked up a scallop, originally wanting to swallow it in one bite. But after glancing at Zhou Lin beside her, she felt embarrassed and started eating in smaller bites instead.
Keeping up appearances was important for everyone, especially for someone like Zheng Qi.
But...
“Treat this place like your own home. You don’t need to be polite with me.”
Zheng Qi laughed.
It was as if chains had been removed from her body. Slurp!
She immediately sucked the remaining half into her mouth.
The sound was not elegant at all, but it felt very real. After putting down her guard, she was just an ordinary girl. That was what Zhou Lin thought.
“That’s better.”
“Hehe... There’s still a lot here. Aren’t you eating?”
“I already ate outside after work with Boss Gao, Cheng... I mean, my sister and the others.”
Zheng Qi laughed while happily chewing the juicy scallop meat. Her hands did not stop moving either as she picked up the biggest scallop.
Watching her, Zhou Lin suddenly remembered the phone call from earlier and could not help laughing too.
Zheng Qi looked up curiously. “You seem really happy today?”
“Yeah. I have huge news to tell you.”
“Me?”
“Mhm! During dinner, I got the message. They already caught him and brought him back...”
Clack!
The scallop shell slipped from Zheng Qi’s hand and hit the glass table.
For the entire night, her eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, clear proof of mental exhaustion.
She had imagined this moment many times and prepared herself too, thinking about how she would settle all the hatred and pain once they met again.
She picked up a switchblade several times and put it down again.
In the end, she threw it aside at the head of the bed.
Early the next morning, Zhou Lin was already waiting in the living room.
You could say he barely slept at all.
Every ten minutes or so, he woke up again, tossed around for a while, fell asleep once more, then woke up again.
The cycle repeated all night.
His mind was completely filled with Zheng Qi’s face from last night. Shocked, crying, yet smiling at the same time.
Normally awkward with words, Zhou Lin suddenly did not know what to say when he saw her.
The excitement he felt after hearing the man had been caught had disappeared instantly.
Dressed fully in black clothes and black pants, Zheng Qi looked stunning.
Unlike Zhou Lin’s shy personality, she walked toward him directly and bowed deeply.
“Thank you.”
She said nothing else.
She could not think of any words better than these two simple ones, even though they carried all her feelings inside them.
Inside the car, Zhou Lin was unusually distracted today.
His driving had always been so steady that in seven years he had never caused an accident, lost points, or paid a traffic fine.
Yet today he almost made the beginner mistake of running a red light.
His eyes kept secretly drifting toward Zheng Qi beside him as he quietly thought and remembered things.
When love disappears, what remains are only memories.
But when love is betrayed, those shared memories become the source of pain instead.
Revenge may feel satisfying for a moment. But when you stab the knife of revenge toward that person, your own hands also become stained with sin.
Forgetting is the best choice.
Other than saints, who can truly promise they would feel no desire for revenge when facing the person they hate most?
And when seeing an evil person finally punished, who could honestly say they felt no satisfaction?
Holding in too much anger is not a good thing. Nobody knows when that pressure might finally drive someone crazy.
Letting Zheng Qi vent her anger for a while and release the hatred in her heart was actually the best way to help her forget that scumbag sooner.
Originally, the plan was simple.
Drag him out and beat him up.
However, the law drew a clear line. Before the court decision, the victim and defendant were not allowed to meet, and nobody dared cross that line.
Cheng Fei’s happy event had already passed, so there was no longer anything to distract Zheng Qi’s attention.
That meant they had to find another way...
After getting out of the car, Zhou Lin looked up at the lifelike lion statue in the distance. Then he turned back and exchanged a small smile with Zheng Qi.
“So this is the place you were talking about...”
Zhou Lin nodded.
“Look at the animals and think about ourselves. They’re trapped inside cages, but we can still move around freely.”
Pfft!
Zheng Qi burst out laughing.
“Using other people’s suffering to build your own happiness... I really couldn’t tell you had such a dark side too.”
“Hehe.”
During the season when the sun burned the earth, it was hard to find a good day for going outside.
Whenever such a day finally arrived, people who had been hiding in air-conditioned rooms would rush outdoors to enjoy the fresh air.
That explained the huge crowds in front of them.
But another question remained.
Why were most of the people here couples? Either holding hands or acting very close to each other.
“Does the zoo also hold matchmaking events?”
“That’s actually possible.”
Zhou Lin laughed along casually and did not think much about it at first, assuming it was only a coincidence.
But when he reached for his phone near the ticket booth, he suddenly noticed the holiday reminder on the calendar.
No wonder...
“So today is...”
“Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day).”
Zheng Qi stared at the giant sign behind the crowd, over ten meters wide.
No way...
Zhou Lin quickly checked the calendar again.
Sure enough, today really was the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
What terrible timing.
Facing the past directly was the final solution. Once someone passed that step, forgetting would only be one last step away.
But Zheng Qi had only just experienced that heartbreaking pain. Right now, she was not ready yet.
“How about we go somewhere else?”
Zheng Qi looked at the tickets in his hand.
“You already bought them, so let’s just go in.”
Zhou Lin sighed helplessly and followed her into the zoo. To attract visitors, the zoo had specially created this holiday-themed event.
Judging from the crowds that looked as packed as a national holiday tourist site, the event was clearly a huge success.
To avoid being separated by the crowd, the distance between the two gradually became smaller and smaller until their shoulders were almost touching.
The familiar feeling reminded Zhou Lin of the past.
Thinking about it carefully, the last time he walked beside his ex-girlfriend like this had been during a snowy winter.
Without noticing it, more than half a year had already passed.
Returning to being single truly felt like losing half your soul.
But staying together when two people were not suitable for each other would only hurt both sides.
Only after firmly understanding what your heart truly wanted could you meet the right person.
Meanwhile, Zheng Qi remained silent the whole time, only looking around curiously. Since childhood, she had rarely come to places like this.
When she was with that man, they either drank at bars or stayed at home. They rarely gathered with friends, let alone went out to play like this.
The zoo was huge, with many different areas. As people spread out through different paths, the crowd around them slowly became thinner.
Without realizing it, they arrived at the bird area. Sunlight shined down, coloring the massive dome overhead with brilliant colors.
Zheng Qi admired the special shape of the dome. It looked like a giant bird spreading its wings to fly.
At the same time, Zhou Lin also spoke with emotion.
“The parrot house is finally open to visitors. That was fast.”
“Hm? It wasn’t here when you came before?”
“There used to be one, but it was very small. There weren’t many bird species either, and people could only watch from far away. Now you can go inside and interact closely with the parrots.”
As he spoke, he pushed open the door.
Only after entering did they realize the colorful light from earlier was actually caused by sunlight shining through colored glass.
Because of that special glass, even though the sun was directly overhead, the place did not feel hot at all.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, birds of many colors chirped everywhere.
Standing in such an environment felt like someone had opened a pressure valve in their hearts. Their stress and frustration instantly eased.
Even after millions of years of evolution and becoming the rulers of Earth, humans were still animals after all.
The instinct to love nature still remained deep inside.
A brave cockatiel flapped its wings and flew toward them.
Zheng Qi had never seen so many birds before. Like a curious child, she kept looking everywhere and did not even notice the bird flying toward her until it landed on her shoulder.
At first, she thought Zhou Lin was playing a prank on her.
But when she turned around and saw him standing beside her, she finally realized what it was.
A parrot’s beak was sharp enough for cracking food, and she immediately worried it might peck off a piece of her flesh.
Turning her head carefully, she saw the cockatiel opening its mouth, showing a tongue that looked like a nut.
“Eek!”
The bird suddenly cried out sharply, scaring Zheng Qi so badly she almost jumped. She immediately reached out to chase it away.
“Don’t be scared!”
Zhou Lin quickly stopped her.
He picked up a sunflower seed from the packet given out at the entrance and held it in front of the bird’s sharp beak.
The parrot tilted its head, recognized the food, grabbed it happily, and flew away with a flutter.
Zheng Qi finally let out a relieved breath.
Then she saw Zhou Lin handing her a drink.
“Thanks.”
“These birds don’t mean any harm. They’re used to being fed by people, so whenever they see humans, they come over asking for food.”
“You... this isn’t your first time here, right? You know this place really well.”
Zhou Lin replied,
“Same old rules everywhere. Birds that are allowed close to people definitely can’t be newly brought in. They need to spend time getting used to humans first. Otherwise accidents would happen.”
“That makes sense.”
Zheng Qi nodded.
Still, she no longer wanted to stay in this area very much.
Zhou Lin noticed her nervousness.
So he opened the small packet with only a dozen sunflower seeds left and scattered them on the ground.
In an instant, many parrots of all sizes rushed over to fight for the food.