Ji Minghuan was merely advancing his own interests, giving this inevitable event a little push to make it develop quicker. The fire was destined to ignite; he was just making it burn faster, not the person who started it.
"Are you still going to argue?" Su Zimai suddenly spoke.
She stared at the chopsticks in the bowl and asked softly, "Didn't we say... to eat properly?"
Gu Qiye was taken aback, the anger slowly subsiding from above, his throat moved up and down.
Gu Zhuo Case still didn't speak, standing quietly like a statue.
Ji Minghuan turned his head to look, Su Zimai had her head down, her eyes covered by her bangs.
Su Zimai continued, "I'm going to stay at a classmate's house this summer break; leaving tonight. I hope you won't bother me." After saying this, she rose from the dining table, quickly walked into the living room, took her backpack single-handedly and walked out without turning back.
The hurried footsteps faded away, and then a loud door closing sound pierced through the entrance, entering the interior of the living room.
Afterward, there was dead silence, no sound in the entire house, while the cicadas outside the window were deafening.
After a long silence, Gu Qiye took a deep breath.
He leaned against the disinfection cabinet and stood down, with his right hand supporting the edge of the sink, he said to Gu Zhuo Case: "I have cleaned up your room in advance, I don't want to see you right now."
Gu Zhuo Case nodded in response, turned his head to look at the dusk outside the window, and said softly: "Xiaomai she..."
"She doesn't need you to care," Gu Qiye said calmly, "you haven't cared about her for two years anyway."
Ji Minghuan immediately jumped out suggesting, "Then I'll go find little sister."
Clearly, he didn't like this heavy and bitter family atmosphere, as an outsider in spirit he'd better avoid it, lest he is possessed by an old drama actor and goes up to perform a family ethical drama with tears for these twisting father and son.
Gu Qiye looked up at him: "But you haven't eaten yet."
"No need... with you in this state, how could anyone eat? I have no appetite, besides she said she didn't want to be bothered by you, so if there's anyone going to find her, it's obviously me."
Ji Minghuan, the initiator, said this and walked out the door without looking back.
As soon as he closed the door, he took out his mobile phone from the pocket of his school uniform jacket, using an anonymous app he'd casually created to edit a message while extending the restraint belt, relying on the restraint sensing to trace the direction Su Zimai had left.
After a moment of work, Ji Minghuan finally finished editing his message, entered the recipient's phone number, and clicked send.
At this moment, he also used the hearing of the restraint sensing to discern the sound of Su Zimai's footsteps, so he put his hands in his school uniform pockets and followed the sound.
The figure gradually merged into the dusk.
At the same time, sitting alone in the kitchen, Gu Qiye held his forehead, eyes downcast, muttering to himself: "I shouldn't have lost my temper in front of Xiaomai..."
He was thinking, when suddenly he heard a "ding" from the phone in his pocket, indicating a received message.
He intended to shut down directly, but considering it might be from Su Zimai or Gu Wenyu, Gu Qiye still picked up the phone to take a look.
He received an SMS, the sender's name and phone number were invisible, like a common prank or spam message.
But the content of the message made Gu Qiye freeze for a second.
[Anonymous user: So, do you now believe my words, and have a slight... doubt about your father?]
Gu Qiye's face twitched slightly.
After hesitating for a while, his heart in turmoil, he clicked into the message interface.
Even though he already had an answer in his heart, he still sent a message to confirm.
[Gu Qiye: Who are you?]
[Black Cocoon: I see... then I'll use this name to communicate with you; this should be more memorable for you.]