10 Years Ago, 10 Years Later

Chapter 9

"Is this why you've been running away from me, because you don't want me to disturb your little happy family?"

At the unexpected interruption, all three of them instantly fall silent — him, Xiao Yu, and Zhang Xiaoxing. Zhang Zhehan does not even have the chance to be surprised. He has no idea that Gong Jun is also there in the lobby. To be confronted out of the blue with such a question, for a long time, he doesn't know what to say.

"Why are you...?"

"Oh, so you're that Gong Jun bastard, huh?" before Zhang Zhehan can speak, Xiao Yu already steps forward, pointing at the source of interruption with an irritated face, "I've always wondered what kind of person you are. It turns out that not only you're a bastard, you also have no manner whatsoever. Did your parents never teach you not to butt into people's conversations uninvited?"

"I have nothing to say to a stranger," Gong Jun responds to him coldly, "My business is with this person here. As it stands, he is still my former fiance and I have matters I need to talk to him about."

"He has nothing to say to you."

"What do you know about it?"

"Everything," Xiao Yu glares at him, "How you treated him like trash for ten whole years, how you looked down and trampled all over his feelings, and how you showed up again now, a decade later, about to ruin the life he has rebuilt from scratch."

"Hmm, you two are very close I see. What else have you shared with him, Hanhan?" Gong Jun smiles at his former fiance, yet that smile of his doesn't reach his eyes, "Did you tell him all about our childhood memories? About our teenage days?"

Zhang Zhehan has never felt so terrified before. His complexion turns pale in the blink of an eye, the tips of his fingers are numb and he feels his body going cold. What makes it worse is that he doesn't know what he is terrified about. His heart rate accelerates so much he can almost feel it knocking against his ribs.

"Junjun, I–"

"And it looks like you also told him about...that particular night that we spent together, huh?" Gong Jun takes a step forward, peering into his face with an unnerving gaze, "How much of it did you tell him? Just the gist of it? Or how we do from start to finish?"

Zhang Zhehan feels a biting chill eating him out from the inside, making his scalps tingle.

"Hey, are you out of your mind?!" Xiao Yu shoves Gong Jun back; his irritation is about to turn into anger, "Don't you see there's a kid here? You're going to speak about that in front of her?!"

"Oh, yes, this kid..." Gong Jun casts a look at Zhang Xiaoxing, who has been standing there in bewilderment, trapped between the three quarreling adults, "You're a big girl, aren't you? How old are you, if I may ask? Eight? Nine?"

Perhaps it is an instinctive reaction a seemingly mundane question, or perhaps the situation makes her incapable of thinking at all. Looking up at the older man, Zhang Xiaoxing blurts out her answer.

"I'm nine..." she says.

"Nine," Zhang Zhehan hears Gong Jun repeating her answer, then turns to look at him again, "You left ten years ago, yet this girl is already nine. How marvelous, Zhehan."

The implication behind his remark cannot be any clearer. Next to them, Xiao Yu appears to have been too shocked to speak, unable to believe what he just heard.

But Gong Jun does not seem to be aware of his surroundings anymore. He takes another step toward Zhang Zhehan; his taller figure towering over him.

"I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Does this child belong to your partner?"