Chapter 24

TN: some of the things about Xiang Yunze and the Arc de Triomphe may not make sense right now, but Chestnut will explain more about it later, so it may be a little confusing to understand right now.

Arc de Triomphe was certainly not Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe, it was only a small canteen – ten years ago, it really was a canteen.

The reason why the name of the canteen was the Arc de Triomphe, it was because during that year, after Xiang Yunze had brought Mo Zhen to defeat the bad boy* from the high school next door, it was here where they bought two popsicles for themselves.

(TN: i got a little confused at first too, because in Canada we don’t call it canteens, we call it a cafeteria, but basically, it was the canteen of a high school/cafeteria of a high school)

(TN: shady guy? Gangster? I feel like when I say bad boy, books like “The Bad Boy and Me” pop into my head #wattpad novels)

Time flew quickly, and now the little canteen had ceased to exist, even Mo Zhen and Xiang Yunze’s alma mater had moved into another neighborhood. The piece of land was later sold to a big boss and renovated into a high class chinese restaurant; but the fate of the canteen that long ago was attached to the high school… … perhaps it was now a washroom?

When Mo Zhen walked into the Arc de Triomphe fifty five minutes later, the beautiful greeting girl standing at the entrance immediately brightened when she saw him enter. Mo Zhen smiled politely at her, although she was very excited in her heart, the expression on her face did not change at all. The first reason was that if she were to show her excitement, she may end up carrying her own luggage, be thrown out and fired, secondly, there were many celebrities who came to the restaurant, by seeing them frequently- she had already gotten very used to them.

“Mr. Mo, the President has already arrived, he is waiting for you in the Golden Summit room on the ninth floor.” Miss Ying said in a sweet voice that could rival any news anchor on television, smiling brightly.

Mo Zhen took off his brown sunglasses and nodded to her in recognition. Miss Ying’s eyes lit up even more, even the smile on her face had become sweeter. When the elevator reached Mo Zhen’s floor, Mo Zhen walked in and pressed the ninth floor button as the beautiful greeting girl politely left.

This restaurant on the seventh floor of the restaurant are VIP rooms, Mo Zhen on the ninth floor later, there are new welcome lady came to help him lead the way.

The Golden Summit Room was at the very end of the corridor, when Mo Zhen opened the door, the first image he saw was of Xiang Yunze hunched over and playing dilligently on his phone.The corners of Mo Zhen’s mouth lifted as he went to the opposite side of the room to sit down, “Professor Xiang, I have not posted on Weibo today.”

Xiang Yunze raised his head to look at Mo Zhen, and then smiled, “That’s good news, I can finally safely go through Weibo.”

Mo: “…”

Then can you not bother me about it ah?!

(TN: referring to how last chapter, Xiang Yunze hit up Mo Zhen to talk about his most recent Weibo post)

Xiang Yunze smiled and swiped his phone screen as a few Weibo posts popped up onto his screen, “Emperor Mo, do you know someone with the name Boiled Lemon?”

“Boiled lemon?” Mo Zhen thought slowly for a moment, “Is that not a web novel author?”

“You know her?” Xiang Yunze exited out of his Weibo and looked at Mo Zhen with interest. “Have you already read her novels?”

Mo Zhen snorted in response, “There are several of her books on my sister’s bookcase. It can’t be that Professor is also one of her fans?”

“No, she is a friend of Li Yan, I often see her in the hospital.” Xiang Yunze said as he pressed the button on the side of the phone and slipped it into his pocket, “Her Weibo is very interesting, if you have time, check it out. ”

Mo Zhen raised his eyebrows, the Li little girl’s existence had always been carefully hidden by Xiang Yunze, but now he was being so generous that he would actually reveal her entire name?

“Yunze, you haven’t fallen in love right?” And the object of that affection would be Boiled Lemon.

Xiang Yunze opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a soft knock came from the room’s door.

“Come in.” Xiang Yunze called to the door as a waiter wearing a Qipao gently pushed the door open. “Excuse me, are you ready to be served?”

Xiang Yunze nodded, and the waiter at the door quietly said a few words to the people outside, and soon, two waiters walked over carrying a plate full of food. They were all wearing a traditional Qipao, and walked slowly to stand at Mo Zhen’s side to continue to serve them dishes.

Xiang Yunze smiled but did not speak as Mo Zhen diligently studied the dishes in front of him.

The dishes of this Chinese restaurant were well known, and although the amount of each dish was very small, but all of them looked like pieces of renowned art. The time currently was around dinner time, but the dishes were all cooked and served vrty quickly, Xiang Yunze had probably ordered them ahead of time before Mo Zhen had arrived. After a while, the majority of the vegetables on the table were eaten by Mo Zhen, when he realized this, he raised his eyebrows and glancing at Xiang Yunze, he said: “Is this how you chased girls in America?”

(TN: Mo Zhen’s referring to how Xiang Yunze knows his taste so well, and had ordered for him ahead of time and is letting him eat all the foood)

Xiang Yunze blinked, and then half-truthfully asked: “If I chase you, will you accept me?”

The hands of the two servers carrying dishes paused. They … did  they just hear things that they probably should not be hearing?

Ignoring the questionable words they had just heard, the speed of the two waiters serving had increased significantly. Soon, it was only Mo Zhen and Xiang Yunze alone in the room, with a total of seven dishes served on the table, the waiters left as quickly as they could after their role had ended.

“Xiang gentleman, the dishes you have ordered have been served; to the two of you, please eat slowly.” The waiter’s Mandarin was not inferior to the words of the greeting lady earlier at the entrance, the two waiters bowed politely to Mo Zhen and Xiang Yunze before quietly leaving the room.

After closing the door, they did not go far, but instead they stood beside the door- ready to be called at anytime. However truthfully, the main reason was that this was the easiest way they could eavesdrop on the conversation in the room.

Mo Zhen’s favourite dish from here was the fried fish; it was so crispy and delicious, that every time he came here he could feel the crisp in every bite of the dish. He added a piece of the fried fish into his bowl and asked Yunze: “Can we order this dish again?”

Looking at Mo Zhen, Xiang Yunze could not help but reply, “Mo Zhen, you still love to eat the foods that little kids love to eat the most.”

Mo Zhen glanced at him for a moment, and then defended himself, “I was going to pack it for the kitten at my house.”

Xiang Yunze blinked in astonishment a few times, and then with an amused tone he said, “When did you become so loving?”  Ever since long ago, Mo Zhen had always hated to be troubled, even when he tried to raise flowers and plants he would always be too lazy to water them, let alone raising a small kitten.

Mo Zhen filled his mouth with a small bite of fish, ignoring his taunts. Xiang Yunze no longer questioned him and simply ordered a dish of crisp fish while thinking ‘Mo Zhen’s anomaly is very interesting.’

Having eaten until he was half full, Mo Zhen finally felt that he could talk business.

“Yunze, what are you looking for today?”

Xiang Yunze stopped moving his chopsticks, not surprised that Mo Zhen knew that he had something on his mind.. From primary school to now, they have long cultivated a subtle tacit understanding, even if they had been separated for several years, this tacit understanding did not change.

Xiang  Yunze picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. His tone was very serious as he said, “Mo Zhen, I intend to take a trip to the United States.

Mo Zhen was slightly surprised a moment, “And what about the Li family’s little gir?”

“Well,” Yunze nodded and began, “I contacted a few friends in the United States, and they might have a way to treat Li Yan.”

Mo Zhen looked up while frowning slightly. He thought about a lot of things, but in the end only made a noise of agreement.

The two proceeded to eat until seven o’ clock. Mo Zhen waited and accepted his specially prepared crispy fish food box while Xiang Yunze walked to the elevator.

When the elevator door opened, there were two young women standing and talking quietly. Upon seeing Mo Zhen, the two were stunned for a moment before both parties politely nodded at each other.

Xiang Yunze, who was accustomed to seeing this every time people came upon  Mo Zhen, stepped calmly into the elevator. Mo Zhen followed behind him as he smoothly pressed the button to close the elevator door.

The elevator was quiet for a while, and the two women continued to talk about the topic that had just been interrupted. Although they spoke softly, in this closed space they could be  heard clearly.

“Last night, I heard it again, it really scared me!” The woman lowered her voice slightly and said, “Right when I was walking near the music fountain, I even thought it might’ve been Venus talking! ”

(TN: Venus statue on the music fountain, Venus- goddess of Love in Roman Mythology)

Mo Zhen’s eyebrows moved, quietly listening to the two talk.

“I also heard my sister say that your villa’s area is really remote, she does not dare to drive home after dark.” The voice of the other lady was even more terrified than her friend, the entire atmosphere around her was very tight and stressed. “Also, I heard her say that recently many cats in the neighborhood have gone missing, when she didn’t see her cat, Snowball, for days, the police told her that it might have been done by the ferocious cat gang in the neighborhood, but my sister said it was a ghost.”

“Don’t say that, you’re giving me goosebumpsp!” The woman’s voice faded as the elevator doors opened. In the spirit of true gentleman, Xiang Yunze and Mo Zhen turned sideways at the same time so that the two women could exit first.

The two women smiled and said thank you. After they were gone, only then did saw Mo Zhen lift his feet out of the elevator.

“Isn’t there a musical fountain with a Venus statue at the villa where you live?” Yunze asked on the way to the parking lot as he looked at the two women walking in the opposite direction.

“En.” Mo Zhen’s face did not look very good. Since Ah Yao came into his house, he almost always arrived home before dark on time, there was no way he would know if there were any ghosts flying around in the neighborhood. – well, not counting the one in his family, but the subject that he was most worried about was the cat gang group the police were talking about.

“Yunze, I have to go back.” Mo Zhen quickened his pace. As Yunze moved to stop him so that he could  go with him to see, the phone rang.

The call was from Chen Qingyang. She would not call him for fun in her spare time, if she ever called him, it was almost definite that something serious had happened to Li Yan. Slowing down his steps after he tried to catch up to Mo Zhen, Xiang Yunze stopped in the corridor and picked up his phone, “What’s wrong?”

“Xiang Yunze! Doctor said that the situation is urgent., I don’t know the specifics but, in short, you should get to the hospital quickly!”

Cheng Qingyang was speaking quickly- her voice extremely anxious. Frowning, Yunze said into the phone: “I’ll be there.”

Hanging up the phone, Yunze looked toward the corridor. Mo Zhen had disappeared without a trace.

Mo Zhen took the car and went straight to the villa area, after half an hour he parked the Land Rover in the garage. Usually upon his return, Mo Zhen would always find Ah Yao joyfully jumping up to greet him, but today after opening the door,  he did not see the kitten’s flattering figure.

Mo Zhen could not help but scrunch up his eyebrows, he did not even change his shoes and started to search around the house for Ah Yao. The place was empty where she could usually be found lying on her tummy in the sun,  and even the computer was still the way that Mo Zhenhad  left it.

Mo Zhen went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door and called inside, “Ah Yao?”

No response. It seems that it is not stupid enough to run into the refrigerator.

So where did she go?

The woman’s conversation in the elevator abruptly echoed in his ear, he could feel a bad premonition coming near.

Ah Yao where u @???

4 thoughts on “Chapter 24

  1. Ren says:

    I am so afraid to know of Ah Yao & Li Yan are the same 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

    (Thank you so much for translating this. ❤️❤️💐🌻🌺🌼🥀🌹🌷)

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