To You Whom I HATE The Most Chapter 6

Sixth Letter

Ever since she was notified by her landlord, Cen Wei had been preoccupied, and she hadn't been getting more than five hours of deep sleep each night.

Now, however, things had finally settled down. On the sofa bed, which was neither too big nor too small, she managed to get a rare, restful sleep.

——Except for being woken up once in the middle of the night.

Around seven or eight in the morning, the sound of footsteps on the stairs jolted Cen Wei’s consciousness back to reality. She groaned quietly, wrapped herself in the blanket, and turned over, pressing her face against the back of the sofa.

The refrigerator door opened and closed, dishes clattered in the kitchen, and chairs scraped sharply across the floor.

After a while, there was a click as the front door locked, and the world finally returned to silence.

Cen Wei pulled the blanket off her face, stretched out her limbs, and lay flat on her back. She dozed off again in a half-sleep.

When she woke up naturally, it was almost noon. Zhou Ran hadn't returned yet. Cen Wei went upstairs to fetch her things.

She had changed her mind at the last minute. The agreement they had made earlier now had to be reconsidered.

She had felt a pang of sympathy at the time, but now that she thought about it, there were quite a few inconveniences to sleeping downstairs. Fortunately, Zhou Ran wasn't home often. He usually left early on weekends and appeared to just come back to sleep during the week.

Cen Wei gently pushed open the door to the room. The blankets on the bed were neatly folded in the corner.

She walked over to the vanity and noticed that the skincare products she had left on it had been rearranged.

Cen Wei then opened the wardrobe, and sure enough, her clothes were neatly sorted by color, in a way that could pass for a color chart.

Although someone had moved her things without permission, Cen Wei didn’t feel upset. After all, she had intended to tease him when she put the clothes away.

But when had Zhou Ran become such a neat freak and a germaphobe?

Cen Wei curled her lip. How could she forget? Back in high school, his desk was the messiest. Every time she collected homework and needed to find his notebook, it was like digging through a garbage dump

What on earth had he been through?

She pulled out the clothes she planned to wear that day from the wardrobe and took a quick wash. Since it wasn’t raining outside, she decided to go out and print the revised plan.

Having not eaten anything since getting up, she walked to the street, where she bought a piece of guokui and some tangyuan in sweet rice wine soup.

She sat on a plastic chair and took a big bite of the guokui. The crust was crispy, and the brown sugar filling inside was perfectly sweet.

Cars passed by, the air was damp from the rain, and above her, the sky was overcast with gray clouds. It was unclear when the sun would come out.

Cen Wei finished the last tangyuan, wiped her mouth with a tissue, and stood up to leave the food stall.

Before heading home, she walked into a coffee shop by the side of the road. Originally, she had only wanted to grab a latte to shake off her drowsiness, but when she saw the cups on the shelf, her feet froze in place.

Cen Wei didn’t like drinking water, but she had never been able to resist beautiful cups.

She scanned the shelves, and her eyes immediately landed on a pair of pink and blue highball glass cups.

The gradient color felt luxurious in her hands, but weren’t they a bit impractical? Cen Wei bit her lower lip and began to hesitate.

But she could keep them to drink with friends. That wasn’t really wasting money... she convinced herself internally and walked over to the counter to pay.

Cen Wei stuffed everything she had bought into her canvas bag, holding an iced latte in one hand as she walked back to the apartment.

As she stepped out of the elevator, she scrolled through her phone while walking. It wasn’t until she reached her door that she noticed someone standing there.

Their eyes met, and both of them froze.

The woman across from her had long, curly hair, delicate makeup, and was wearing high heels with a dress that accentuated her slender, well-proportioned legs. Her perfume was sweet, with a floral scent.

After sizing her up, Cen Wei spoke, “You are...?”

“I’m here to see Mr. Zhou,” the woman replied, holding a paper bag in her hand. She looked like she had been waiting for a while.

“Oh.” Cen Wei nodded.

“And you?” The woman asked with a gentle smile.

Staring into those beautiful eyes, which sparkled with fine glitter, Cen Wei inexplicably felt a pang of guilt.

“I...” she quickly glanced around, then pulled out the printed document from her bag and said, “I’m Mr. Zhou’s assistant. I’m here to deliver some files.”

The woman opened her mouth in surprise. “He made you run an errand even on the weekend?”

“Yeah,” Cen Wei smiled a little, “We have a meeting tomorrow, so it’s urgent.”

“I knocked, but it seems like he’s not home.” The woman then asked, “What time did you agree to meet? Did he tell you when he’d be back?”

“Ah...” Cen Wei glanced at the time on her phone. “He asked me to come at three. I must’ve arrived too early.”

“Well, he should be back soon.”

Cen Wei squinted and smiled. “It won’t be long now.”

“Why don’t you call your boss and ask?”

Cen Wei blinked, looking up in confusion. “Huh?”

“I already called him,” the woman explained. “He probably didn’t pick up because he didn’t recognize my number.”

“Oh, okay.” Cen Wei pressed her lips together, pretending to scroll through her contacts while silently hoping that He Zhiying would reply soon.

“Zhou Ran.” The woman with long hair smiled as soon as she saw him.

“What are you doing here?” Zhou Ran asked as he looked at her.

“Didn’t you say you moved into a new place yesterday? I was at a restaurant with a friend for lunch, and I thought this bottle of wine was nice, so I wanted to bring it over as a housewarming gift.” She held out the paper bag she was carrying to Zhou Ran.

“Thanks, but...” Zhou Ran paused for a moment, “How did you know I lived here?”

“Ji Qinghuan told me.”

“Oh.” Zhou Ran pulled the corners of his mouth into a slight smile.

So, he had gone out yesterday to meet someone for a blind date.

Noticing the attention on her, Cen Wei lifted her head and immediately put on a smile. "Oh, right, Mr. Zhou, here are the documents you asked for."

Zhou Ran raised an eyebrow and quickly realized what was happening. "Okay, thanks."

He held the documents in one hand and the bottle of wine in the other, his gaze scanning between the two women. When he saw neither of them seemed ready to leave, he asked, somewhat obliviously, "Would you like to come in and sit down?"

One of them answered eagerly, "Sure."

The other stared at him wide-eyed and mouthed, "Are you crazy?"

Zhou Ran frowned, not understanding what Cen Wei had just said.

He walked past the two women, pressed the code, and unlocked the door. "Come on in."

It was only a couple of seconds later, as he stood at the entrance, looking into the house, that he belatedly understood what Cen Wei’s earlier actions had meant.

"Uh..." Zhou Ran opened his mouth, wondering if it would be impolite to push Luo Xiaolei out now.

It probably wouldn’t escalate to a fight, but Zhou Ran’s reputation as a jerk was certainly unavoidable.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly at that moment. It may have only been two or three seconds, but for the three of them, it felt like an eternity.

Luo Xiaolei was the first to break the silence. A smart woman is particularly good at playing dumb. She chuckled lightly and ultimately didn’t step inside. "Sorry for dropping by unannounced. I’ll leave now, we’ll talk some other time. Goodbye."

Zhou Ran said, "I’ll see you out."

"No need, Mr. Zhou." Luo Xiaolei maintained her graceful smile.

When the sound of her high heels faded into the hallway, Cen Wei quickly grabbed Zhou Ran and pulled him inside, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Wait, you idiot! How could you bring her in?" Cen Wei put her hands on her hips and scolded him.

"I..." Zhou Ran scratched the back of his head. At that moment, he had only been thinking about being polite and inviting her in, completely forgetting that there were traces of someone else in the house.

Cen Wei, concerned for him, said, "What now? You need to explain this to her quickly."

"Forget it, this misunderstanding works just as well." Zhou Ran threw his car keys onto the entryway table, changed his shoes, and walked into the house.

Cen Wei was shocked. “You don’t like this kind of rich beauty?”

“It was arranged by my boss. I’m not interested.”

Cen Wei grew more anxious. “If your boss arranged it, you still won’t apologize? Aren’t you afraid of losing your job?”

Zhou Ran looked at her and asked genuinely, “What does this have to do with you?”

Cen Wei blinked, momentarily speechless.

Just as he was about to turn the page, Cen Wei snatched the folder from his hands and sternly warned him, “Don’t flip through it.”

“It’s for me to see, amyway.”

Cen Wei shoved the file back into her bag.

“You’re pretty clever.”

Cen Wei snorted. “Who knew you’d be this incompetent?”

She had spent so long acting outside the door for nothing.

Zhou Ran then changed the subject and asked, “Did you sleep well last night?”

"It was fine."

Zhou Ran nodded and didn’t say anything else before heading upstairs.

The other person’s presence was so faint that it almost felt like she was living alone.

On Monday morning, as usual, around seven, Cen Wei was woken by the noise of Zhou Ran getting up.

She had set her alarm for 8:30, so it was still early.

The small rustling sounds were subtle, yet impossible to ignore.

Cen Wei even heard Zhou Ran answer a phone call. She didn’t pay much attention to what he said.

About half an hour later, Zhou Ran left the house. Cen Wei turned over, slept a little longer, then finally got up.

At 9:00, she yawned as she sat on the subway and messaged her group chat, asking if anyone needed her to pick up breakfast.

"Good morning," Jing Shenyin said with a smile.

Cen Wei quickly chewed a couple of times, swallowed the red bean bun, and responded, "Good morning! Boss."

Jing Shenyin glanced at the four or five plastic bags in her hands and teased, "Are you moonlighting as a delivery person for this building?"

"Huh? No," Cen Wei shrank her neck a bit.

"Which one is yours?" Jing Shenyin asked.

Cen Wei looked up. "Hmm?"

"Soy milk. Which one is yours?"

Cen Wei raised her left hand. "This one."

Jing Shenyin reached out, took the cup of soy milk with a straw inserted from the bag, and held it up to her mouth.

Cen Wei glanced at him but didn’t move.

Jing Shenyin said, "I thought you were about to choke."

Cen Wei’s face flushed with embarrassment, and she quickly lowered her head to grab the straw.