Chapter 98: Who is the Landlord, Who is the Tenant

Mi Cao’s expression was very calm as she helped me make the bed, leaving me unable to detect the slightest clue of any mischief she might be planning. This made me even more surprised because, with her prestigious identity as CEO of Zhuo Mei, why would she help me make the bed? She had never been this nice to me before. At least in this house, we had always been at odds with each other.

Under my watchful gaze, Mi Cao smoothed out the quilt and then said with a sigh of relief, “Done!”

I stepped forward, looked down at her, and asked, “Tell me… have you played any tricks on me?”

“What?” she asked, puzzled.

“You know, like spreading glue on the bedsheet or something, any kind of prank that would make me uncomfortable!” I explained.

Mi Cao looked at me, half-smiling, and said, “What glue? I’m certainly not capable of doing something so childish. But you, I’m sure, are perfectly capable of doing such things, which is probably why you’re saying this.”

I didn’t have the energy to argue with Mi Cao at this late hour, so I felt slightly reassured and said, “Better if there isn’t any.”

“Then I’m going to sleep.”

“Wait a moment, the porridge will be ready soon. Let’s eat together and chat a bit. We haven’t seen each other for a long time,” I suggested.

“You help me make the bed, and I invite you for porridge. That sounds pretty good!” Mi Cao smiled and said.

“Of course. Do you think I’m idle enough to always quarrel with you?”

“I didn’t say you quarreled with me. You’ve behaved quite nicely today, actually. It’s almost like giving back tit for tat.”

I nodded in agreement and said, “That phrase ‘tit for tat’ is well used. Anyway, I’m not someone who likes to keep score or retaliate endlessly.”

“Me neither.”

Suddenly, I blurted out, “So, let’s go have some porridge.”

…

It was almost midnight, and Mi Cao and I sat on opposite sides of the dining table, each with a bowl of porridge made from red dates and lotus seeds.

I held the sugar jar and asked Mi Cao, “Do you want some sugar?”

Mi Cao pushed her bowl toward me slightly and said, “Just a little bit.”

I scooped a little sugar into her bowl with a spoon and added a little to mine as well. We both continued eating quietly, and this harmony and peace between us was quite rare.

After we had eaten almost half of our porridge, I finally said to Mi Cao, who had been focused on eating, “Do you know why I came back to Suzhou this time?”

Mi Cao seemed to take it lightly and said, “Yes, CC told me.”

“Oh.” I responded indifferently.

Mi Cao put down her spoon, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and asked, “You don’t have a fiancée, do you? What will happen to her now that you’re here?”

When Mi Cao mentioned Li Xiaoyun, my mood instantly dropped. Our meeting and time together seemed like a brief, dazzling fireworks display that ultimately faded away amidst worldly troubles.

After a while, I finally said to Mi Cao, “We broke up, what else could we do?”

“That woman who asked you to come to Suzhou is really that important? Important enough for you to give up so much!”

“Of course, I didn’t want to give up so much, but if I didn’t come back, what would happen to her?”

“Have you thought about your girlfriend? How sad she must feel.”

I smiled bitterly in my disappointment and said, “Of course I’ve thought about it and I know how sad she must feel. But without me, she can still live with another man and get married… but if I hadn’t come back to Suzhou, maybe Leyao wouldn’t even be able to continue living. So…”

Mi Cao didn’t let me continue. She nodded and said, “I understand.”

“Okay,” I replied softly, lowering my head to continue eating the porridge in my bowl, and so did Mi Cao. We fell silent again, finishing the porridge in our bowls in silence.

…

After finishing our meal, Mi Cao and I stood side by side washing the dishes. I asked her again, “Why did you lock me outside just now? Did you think I came back to Suzhou because of another woman, not because of you?”

Mi Cao hesitated slightly before answering, “You’ve already explained it clearly to me. I think this choice might be the real Zhao Yang, and I can understand you.”

I looked at Mi Cao, feeling a complex emotion in my heart. Although she could understand me, she was ultimately not Li Xiaoyun. If Li Xiaoyun had given me the same understanding and trust, perhaps we wouldn’t have broken up.

But how could I expect that? Everyone’s perspective on things is different. Maybe Mi Cao could understand me, but if she were in Li Xiaoyun’s position, viewing this matter from her perspective, she might not understand. Such is the unpredictable nature of human nature.

Soon, we had both finished washing our own dishes. Mi Cao seemed genuinely tired. As soon as she placed the dishes in the cabinet, she yawned and said to me, “I’m going to sleep first. Good night.”

“Wait,” I called out to her as she was about to turn away.

“What now?”

After hesitating for a while, I finally asked her, “This time I came back to Suzhou, I’m staying in this house. Don’t you think you should give me a key?”

Mi Cao’s expression changed instantly. I instinctively thought she was going to refuse, so I quickly added, “You shouldn’t break your promise, right? And you’re such a principled person. I clearly remember you promised me that if I came back, you’d let me stay.”

“You don’t need to keep emphasizing the promises I’ve made to you. You can stay, but first we need to clarify one thing.”

“Okay, I’ll definitely cooperate to clarify it.”

Mi Cao nodded and said, “Which one of us is the tenant and which one is the landlord?”

“Uh…” I was speechless for a moment. Of course, I knew I was the tenant, but I didn’t want to easily give up the landlord identity I had previously claimed.

Mi Cao, somewhat impatiently, asked, “Is it that hard to answer?”

Under Mi Cao’s pressuring tone, I once again felt the sorrow of being under someone else’s roof, and gritted my teeth to say to Mi Cao, “I’m the tenant.”

“And me?”

“…Damn it, I already said I’m the tenant. Don’t you know what you are?”

Mi Cao calmly replied, “Of course I know, but I want you to say it.”

“You’re quarreling with me again. Weren’t we getting along pretty well just now? Why do we have to argue over such a trivial title of landlord and tenant?”

“Since it’s just a trivial title, why did you try to switch the roles and force me to be the tenant back then?”

Suddenly, I realized that Mi Cao’s logical ability was too strong. No matter how eloquent I was, she could always find loopholes in my words to counterattack, while I often didn’t know how to respond to her counterattacks.

Mi Cao continued to look at me seriously, and I finally “impatiently” said, “Alright, you win… You’re the landlord, okay!”

Mi Cao smiled triumphantly, turned her head, didn’t say anything to me, and then walked toward her room. Suddenly, she began singing the song “New Tenant” by Faye Wong, which I had once sung in front of her.

Although Mi Cao singing this song was somewhat mocking me, it was also the first time I had heard her sing. It turned out her voice was so melodious and moving. What surprised me even more was that the usually composed Mi Cao also had such a humorous side…

But she miscalculated. I guessed she sang this song to retaliate against my previous smugness, but I didn’t feel it was retaliation at all. Instead, I felt she had shown me another side of herself that was unknown to others. It was a win-win situation for me.

Thus, my mood finally broke free from the sadness and pressure that had been haunting me for a long time.