To Have & To Hold [All JunZhe Ships]

Suspicion (Part 1 of 2)

It was the night after the New Year, Zhou Zishu woke up at the middle of the night to an empty bed again; Wen Kexing had been disappearing at night without a word for the past two weeks, to come back in the morning everyday. It had been happening for a while now, he was so silent and sneaky that Zhou Zishu never woke up in time to catch him red-handed.

Zhou Zishu wasn't the suspicious type and he had always trusted Wen Kexing; but lately things had escalated rapidly and to the worse. It had been four consecutive nights that Wen Kexing was not sleeping beside him. So he decided to investigate.

After thoroughly searching the manor and not finding a trace that lead to Wen Kexing's whereabouts, Zhou Zishu knocked on Chengling's door to interrogate him, "Chengling?" He opened the door and entered his room, "Chengling, wake up."

"Shifu." Chengling sat up rubbing his eyes, "What's wrong, Shifu?"

"Have you seen your Shishu going out at night lately?" Zhou Zishu asked him with furrowed brows, "have you noticed anything weird?" He sat beside him on the bed.

"Shifu... Did you have a nightmare?" Chengling sounded confused.

"Chengling!" Zhou Zishu scolded, "I'm serious, have you noticed anything...suspicious?" He grabbed his shoulders.

"No... Shifu..." Chengling's eyes wandered, "but..." he hesitated.

"What? But what?" He asked impatiently.

"One night I got up to get some water and I saw him sitting in the kitchen writing something," Chengling admitted, "but he wasn't doing anything suspicious!" He defended Wen Kexing.

"Did you see what he was writing?"

"I don't remember clearly...But it looked like a letter...or a note" Chengling paused to recall that night. "I peeked a little... but I have never heard of the name that the letter was addressed to."

"What was the name?"

"I'm not sure... I don't remember..."

"Man or a woman?!" Zhou Zishu persisted.

"Shifu... I really don't remember, I don't know..." He shrank back, "why are you asking?"

Zhou Zishu sighed and shook his head, "maybe I'm thinking too much," he rubbed Chengling's hair, "go back to sleep."

He walked back to his room slowly, trying hard to brush the suspicion away from his head but he couldn't; he wrapped the thin fabric over his shoulder as he sat on the bed waiting for Wen Kexing to come back. He thought of the places he could've gone to in the middle of the night and didn't find any convincing justification to his distrust. The martial arts war had already ended and the ghost valley had been evacuated and sealed shut; so what was so urgent that Wen Kexing had to attend to at the middle of the night for four nights in a row leaving his family behind?

He decided to the go search Wen Kexing's things, in hopes to find a clue to where he was disappearing to. He knew that it was unethical to search his things, but Zhou Zishu was almost going insane with all the empty doubt nibbling on his mind and heart.

He searched his nightstand, the closet, every pocket and every fold in his clothes, but didn't find anything helpful; until his eyes landed on a sealed envelope under the copper mirror stand. Zhou Zishu snatched the envelope and opened it disregarding Wen Kexing's privacy; inside there was a small note.

Same place. Same time.

The note was anonymous and didn't have any address; Zhou Zishu folded it back and his expression changed from worry to fury. Who was that shameless person who would dare send this to his soulmate?! And Wen Kexing was indeed too daring to let himself receive such notes!