On the campus of Xingda University, the students who had enjoyed a long vacation were gradually returning to school from all over the country. Today, Sun Lingfei had finally rushed back to Xingcheng from Yanjing, unable to wait any longer.
The two, who had been longing for each other, finally met in a low-key manner. After a month apart, Miss Sun seemed a little thinner than before. When she saw Xu Ze, who was wearing a dark short trench coat, appear in front of her, a bright smile lit up her face.
Xu Ze walked over quickly, gently embraced her slender waist, and lightly kissed her delicate cheek. Inhaling the faint, familiar fragrance from her hair, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath of satisfaction and whispered with concern, “Lingfei, you look like you’ve lost weight…”
“Mm… I lost four pounds. And it’s all your fault…” Sun Lingfei held tightly onto his solid shoulders, resting her head gently on Xu Ze’s shoulder, her face full of reluctance.
“Later, come to my place… I’ll make you some chicken soup. You need to build yourself back up…” Xu Ze whispered close to her ear.
Sun Lingfei pouted slightly, a trace of melancholy appearing on her pretty little face as she grumbled, “My dad’s been getting stricter with me lately. I’m pretty sure my phone is being monitored… If I go to your place, he’ll definitely know.”
“No worries… I’ll handle it. He won’t be able to find you…” Xu Ze smiled and shook his head, then playfully tapped her cute wrinkled nose and chuckled, “What? Don’t you trust me?”
Seeing the confident look on Xu Ze’s face, Sun Lingfei raised her eyebrows slightly, then finally smiled. “Alright… I trust you.”
The two got into the car and headed straight for the supermarket.
Once at the supermarket, Miss Sun once again displayed her specialty, enthusiastically picking out all kinds of ingredients for a big shopping spree. Xu Ze followed behind with the shopping cart, grinning as he watched the cart pile up higher and higher. He then reached in and quietly put some of the duplicate items back on the shelves.
Half an hour later, after Sun Lingfei had bought half a pound of lean pork and was heading toward the poultry section, Xu Ze finally stopped her.
“Aren’t you going to make soup? Are we not making soup anymore?” Sun Lingfei asked curiously, blinking at Xu Ze.
Xu Ze smiled and said, “The chickens here are all factory-farmed… they’re not very nutritious.”
“Oh… then where are we going to buy one?” Sun Lingfei, who wasn’t very familiar with such matters, tilted her head and asked curiously, her big eyes sparkling.
Xu泽 gave a light smile. “Come on, let’s grab a bottle of red wine, and that should be about it. You’ll have your soup later.”
Xu Ze was never too particular about red wine. He casually picked up a bottle of ice wine and pushed the cart out of the supermarket.
Sitting in the car, Sun Lingfei assumed Xu Ze would take her to a wet market. Instead, he drove straight toward the residential complex.
When they arrived at the entrance, Xu Ze pulled over to the side. A middle-aged man was already waiting at the gate with a bag in hand.
Seeing the car with the crossed logo stop, the man quickly walked over with a smile and handed the bag over. “Dr. Xu, this chicken was raised by my family. It’s been eating all kinds of grains—it’s a real free-range bird. I’ve already prepped it for you.”
Xu Ze took the bag with a smile and handed over a hundred-yuan bill. “Uncle Zhang, I really appreciate you going out of your way.”
“Dr. Xu… just the fact that you called me means you remember me. How could I take your money?” The man’s face showed a hint of displeasure at the offer, and he turned to leave.
Xu Ze quickly caught up and firmly pressed the money into his hand. “Uncle Zhang, you work hard selling vegetables in Xingcheng. I can’t just take this from you for free. If you don’t accept it, I won’t feel right eating it.”
“No, no… Dr. Xu, if I took your money, your aunt would never let me hear the end of it. Besides, we still haven’t properly thanked you for curing her illness last time. Just getting a call from you made me really happy. I really can’t take your money for the chicken.”
From inside the car, Sun Lingfei watched the two of them—one insisting on paying, the other refusing—both genuinely sincere. The middle-aged man didn’t seem particularly well-off, yet he adamantly refused Xu Ze’s money.
She couldn’t help but feel deeply moved. Her Xu Ze really was someone people held in high regard.
After slipping the money into the man’s pocket, Xu Ze got back into the car and drove into the complex. Though a single chicken wasn’t worth much, he never liked taking things from others for free. Uncle Zhang, who had come to Xingcheng from Chengtang to sell vegetables, was truly a kind person. Back then, Xu Ze had simply done his duty and cured his wife of a relatively minor illness, yet the man still remembered the favor. Country folks really were so sincere.
Sun Lingfei got out of the car, hesitated for a moment, then looked at Xu Ze and said, “Ah Ze… my dad is definitely monitoring my phone. If I go to your place, he’ll find out.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. I have a way. If he calls, just tell him you’re studying at the school library.” Xu Ze smiled reassuringly as he comforted Sun Lingfei, while in his mind, he was quickly giving instructions to Xiaodao. Though he had never done this before, he was confident that something like this wouldn’t be too difficult for Xiaodao.
If Xiaodao couldn’t even handle this, then it wouldn’t deserve to call itself a super system from the future. Naturally, for Xiaodao, who treated modern networks like they were nothing, tampering with the mobile network should be a simple task.
Receiving Xu Ze’s command, Xiaodao quickly understood what he wanted. It entered the mobile network, retrieved Sun Lingfei’s phone number, and set up a virtual signal point. The location of this signal point was set to one of the lecture halls at Xingda University.
If anyone tried to track Sun Lingfei’s whereabouts using monitoring systems, they would find that she was staying in a classroom at Xingda University.
“Alright, setup complete… Under my watch, no one will be able to track your girlfriend’s real location,” Xiaodao reported with satisfaction.
Seeing Xu Ze’s confident expression, Sun Lingfei finally chose to trust him. Xu Ze wouldn’t joke about something like this. Besides, she believed that he might actually have the ability to pull it off.
Relieved, she happily followed him upstairs. She hadn’t seen Xu Ze in a whole month, and time alone together was still what she looked forward to the most.
Once inside the familiar place, Sun Lingfei tossed her bag in the living room and immediately took the initiative to bring the ingredients into the kitchen to help wash them. The two shared a warm, sweet atmosphere.
Watching Sun Lingfei fumbling with the rubber gloves as she washed vegetables in the sink, Xu Ze couldn’t help but smile. He picked up the bag Uncle Zhang had given him and pulled out the whole chicken. Uncle Zhang had already prepared it—all Xu Ze needed to do was chop it up and put it in the pot.
Xu Ze placed the chicken on the cutting board and skillfully chopped it into pieces. Then he took out the purple clay pressure cooker, added the chicken, threw in the chestnuts they had bought at the supermarket, sprinkled in a little salt, sealed the lid, plugged it in, and set it aside in the corner.
Watching how effortlessly Xu Ze had prepared everything, Sun Lingfei’s big, beautiful eyes widened in surprise. “That’s it? That’s all you have to do?”
Xu Ze smiled faintly and nodded. “Yep, that’s it. In an hour, you’ll be drinking some delicious chicken soup.”
“It’s that simple?” Sun Lingfei had always thought cooking was a complicated process. Seeing Xu Ze make soup today made her realize how simple it could actually be.
Around six o’clock, Sun Lingfei’s father called as expected. Being sharp, she quickly picked up on something from his tone—it turned out that he really thought she had been in the classroom the whole time and had called because she hadn’t gone to eat yet.
After exchanging a few perfunctory words, Sun Lingfei hung up and excitedly threw her arms around Xu Ze. “Ah Ze, you’re amazing! How did you do it? He actually thinks I’ve been studying in the classroom all along.”
“Just a little secret,” Xu Ze quickly brushed off the curious Sun Lingfei.
Soon, a full table of dishes was prepared with the two working together. For a young couple who were deeply in love and had been apart for so long, even cooking together was an incredibly sweet experience.
This time, Xu Ze didn’t dare let Sun Lingfei drink too much red wine. He ended up drinking most of it himself. If she got tipsy again, he wouldn’t be able to let her stay the night this time. After all, if Sun Lingfei didn’t go back in the evening, Xu Ze wouldn’t be able to reroute the landline calls.
Besides, Li Xiaorui had also returned to Xingda University. If Sun Lingfei didn’t show up, her father might find out.
So at nine o’clock in the evening, Xu Ze reluctantly walked Sun Lingfei downstairs. Though she hadn’t drunk much, she was still slightly tipsy.
Seeing the beautiful girl clinging to him, unwilling to let go, Xu Ze couldn’t resist anymore. He gently kissed her soft, red lips. Feeling his passion, Sun Lingfei responded warmly. They didn’t part until they were both out of breath.
After that deep kiss, Sun Lingfei finally snapped back to reality. Touching her flushed cheeks, she shot Xu Ze a playful glare and scolded, “This is all your fault… When I get back, Xiaorui is definitely going to notice something’s off.”
“It’s fine… Xiaorui isn’t a stranger. So what if she notices?” Xu Ze was feeling particularly shameless at that moment, grinning with unapologetic cheekiness.
Seeing his brazen expression, Sun Lingfei shyly punched him a few times before finally heading back with a flushed face, leaving Xu Ze standing there, savoring the rare sweetness of the evening.
The scheduled meeting with the renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner was fast approaching. The next day, Xu Ze boarded a direct flight to Yanjing, heading straight there.
The meeting place was unsurprisingly the National Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences. Xu Ze took a taxi and quickly arrived at the entrance. After contacting the renowned practitioner, he followed the guard’s directions and walked toward one of the buildings inside.
