Journey of Lies

Jiangxia opened her social media app, and the screen was filled with news about the earthquake in Thailand.

In fact, the most severely affected area of ​​this earthquake was Myanmar. Because it was so severe, almost the entire country of Myanmar lost signal, and people were unable to send out real-time messages. Instead, the Bangkok earthquake, which was on the same seismic wave, came into the public eye.

Twelve hours have passed since the earthquake, and posts continue to be updated. Long-term Chinese residents dare not continue living in high-rise buildings with obvious cracks, while compatriots who are on short-distance trips to Thailand are rushing to buy tickets to return home.

Some people even bought tickets to other visa-free countries, as if they were happy as long as they could leave Bangkok.

Jiang Xia didn't turn off the lights. She was dressed and lying on one side of the double bed, clutching her phone tightly and staring anxiously through the crack in the bedroom door.

The television in the living room was playing a ball game, but the volume was low, almost like white noise.

Hu Junxi was in the opposite room. After resting for a while after dinner, he started playing games in the room again.

The panic during the day finally subsided into the night, allowing me to calm down and think things through.

She was too hasty. She had only met Sheng Zhi a few times and hadn't even exchanged many words with him before following him here.

Living under the same roof with two strange men was something Jiang Xia would never have dared to imagine before.

Looking back at the message she sent to Ren Jiayi that afternoon, she didn't dare tell Ren Jiayi that she was staying at a strange man's house.

To put it bluntly, she is a very traditional person at heart, and it is inappropriate for her to live in a man's house.

*

The next morning, Jiang Xia was woken up by the sound of moving upstairs. She picked up her phone and found it was already 8:30.

I drank a lot of water before bed last night, and now I want to open the door and go out, but I have a lot of concerns.

I listened intently at the door for a long time, but the living room was as quiet as if no one was there.

Did they share a room last night? It seemed like there was only one bed in that room.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door next to her, startling Jiang Xia, who quickly took two steps back.

"W-What is it?"

"Breakfast is getting cold. Let's finish eating and then go get our luggage."

"Oh, here it comes."

Hearing the sound of running water from the kitchen faucet, Jiang Xia opened the door and came out.

On the table were two bowls of takeout rice noodle soup, with a few pieces of pig's blood in them.

"There's a pretty famous breakfast place nearby that serves pig's blood rice noodles. If you don't like it, they also have wontons in the fridge."

Jiang Xia said she was used to the food, then turned around and went to wash up.

When I came out again, Sheng Zhi was already eating.

"Isn't he going to eat?" Jiang Xia glanced in the direction of Hu Junxi's room.

"He only goes to sleep in the middle of the night, and we can't wake him up," Sheng Zhi nodded to Jiang Xia to eat. "We'll drive Junxi's car over in a bit, otherwise we'll get stuck in traffic."

Jiang Xia ate with her head down, but couldn't help glancing towards the sofa, where a blanket was neatly folded. Could it be that Sheng Zhi slept in the living room last night?

……

On the way, Jiang Xia no longer hid her curiosity about Sheng Zhi, "You said before that you were a freelancer here, what do you do?"

Southeast Asia has many digital nomads, but Sheng Zhi doesn't look like an IT guy at all.

"Started to be curious about me?" Sheng Zhi gripped the steering wheel, turning his head to look at her. "Is there anything else you want to ask?"

"Why are you helping me? Or are you like this with every woman...?"

Sheng Zhi interrupted, "I'm a superficial person. I believe in love at first sight, and I just like your outward appearance."

"Then you are indeed very superficial." Jiang Xia looked straight ahead.

"I occasionally take on commercial photography jobs, so I'd say I'm a freelance photographer. If you need my services, I can take photos for you for free."

"No."

Jiang Xia was skeptical of Sheng Zhi's words, but they had at least helped her these past two days.

Upon arriving at the hotel, their luggage had already been placed in the storage room. The lobby was bustling with people, and the waiter asked them to wait a moment.

While Jiang Xia was in the restroom, when she returned to the lobby, she saw Sheng Zhi standing not far away, talking on the phone.

The two met each other's gaze from a distance. Sheng Zhichong pointed in the direction of the storage room, where a waiter was already pushing a suitcase out.

Seeing Jiang Xia walk through the hall to sign autographs, Sheng Zhi turned to the other end of the phone and whispered, "I know, I'll book the same flight later... By the way, Jiang Xia has an appointment for psychological counseling, I'll take her there later."

After hanging up the phone, Sheng Zhi put away his phone and pondered the conversation over and over again.

He had been in contact with the main character all along, and today he made a couple of tentative remarks, and the other party actually called him.

It was a woman, with a slightly husky voice, but she couldn't be older than thirty-five, based on his years of experience with countless women.

After Jiang Xia collected her suitcase, she looked at Sheng Zhi, who had already hung up the phone and was walking over.

Sheng Zhi took the pen and asked casually, "Should we go straight there in a bit?"

"If you need anything, I can take a taxi there."

After signing the papers, Sheng Zhi grabbed the handle of her suitcase and strode out, saying, "Serving a beautiful lady is my pleasure."

Jiang Xia pursed her lips and followed behind him, unable to help but say, "I'm not the kind of person you think I am. I appreciate your help, but don't think that this is how we can be together—"

"So what?" Sheng Zhi put two suitcases into the trunk, a smile playing on his lips as he asked her, "So you can interfere in your marriage? Are you that insecure? Or have you already been dissatisfied with your partner for a long time?"

Jiang Xia was too lazy to argue with him and simply got into the passenger seat.

As soon as they got in the car, Sheng Zhi deliberately said, "With such a big earthquake in Thailand, isn't your husband worried?"

Jiang Xia didn't say anything more, turning her head to look out the car window, memories flooding her mind.

In the first year of the pandemic, Hsu Hsiu-chieh ignored his family's advice and insisted on coming to Thailand to find inspiration, even though the pandemic in Thailand was much later.

Five days after Xu Xiujie flew away, the community was locked down several times, and every household was hoarding vegetables and panic buying. A super-spreader was reported in the community where Xu's family lived. Xu's parents did not know how to buy vegetable packages online, so they ate rice and noodles at home for three days in a row.

Jiang Xia and Xu Xiujie were both only children. It was the fifth year of their relationship, and their parents had a good relationship. Jiang Xia naturally took on the responsibility of taking care of the two elders.

She stayed up until the wee hours of the morning just to grab an extra bag of vegetables, and lined up at six in the morning to be the first to get a nucleic acid test, all so she could get to the back gate of the community earlier to deliver food to her parents.

Even the blood sugar-lowering medicine for Xu's father was something she managed to buy by going through a lot of trouble and using her connections with her superiors.

She would report on the situation at home to Xu Xiujie every day. At first, Xu Xiujie would reply with a few messages each day, but eventually he would simply let his phone run out of battery and shut down. When he turned it back on a week later, he would only say, "I just finished a painting, and your constant calls are distracting me."

Jiang Xia thought that perhaps he didn't care about anyone—his parents, and even less about her.