Mistaken Canary Chapter 36 (Part 1)
Chapter 36.1
Ying Tongchen stepped inside and sat down on the couch in the living room.
After setting down his textbooks, he took out the bank card and the set of keys from his bag. "Here, I’m returning these to you."
Zhuo Shu's smile froze slightly. "What do you mean by this?"
Ying Tongchen adjusted his glasses and remarked, "I’m an upstanding person."
"?" Zhuo Shu raised an eyebrow. "Did I say you weren’t?"
"Then what do you mean by giving me these things?" Ying Tongchen leaned back, crossing his legs, and said seriously, "Take them back. I'm not—"
Before he could finish speaking, a loud rumbling sound of a truck came from outside. Zhuo Shu immediately went to open the door.
The truck driver shouted, "We’ve arrived! Where do you want these?"
"Both the front and back yards," Zhuo Shu instructed from the courtyard.
A moment later, a few strong workers got out of the truck and opened the back cover, revealing several saplings inside.
Ying Tongchen followed behind him, puzzled. "What are you planning to do with these?"
"Planting trees, of course," Zhuo Shu said. "The flowers and plants in the yard haven’t been taken care of for a long time. I’ll have someone come over in a few days to handle the rest of the greenery."
Ying Tongchen watched as the workers carried the saplings and spread out around the villa. He glanced at the time and said, "We need to talk."
"No rush. We can talk another day." Zhuo Shu waved it off, then pointed at one of the trees. "Oh, that one should go in the back!" He led the worker around to the backyard, casually picking a spot. "Right here is fine."
As soon as he finished speaking, he quietly pressed himself against the wall, peeked outside, and let out a relieved sigh when he saw that Ying Tongchen hadn't followed him. Quickly, he pulled out his phone and made an emergency call to Mi Shu.
Mi Shu was on a date when her boss's call interrupted her perfect mood. Her enthusiasm instantly died. "Chairman Zhuo, how may I assist you?"
Zhuo Shu took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I think Ying Tongchen is about to break up with me."
Mi Shu: "And?"
"Why would he want to break up with me? Have I treated him badly?" Zhuo Shu slowly crouched down, absentmindedly plucking at the grass. "I gave him a car and a house, but not only did he refuse to take the house keys, he also just returned the car keys and the bank card. Judging by this, he’s probably planning to cut ties with me completely."
Mi Shu speculated, "I may not understand much about men, but if it were me doing something like this, it would absolutely mean I was about to break up."
"Bre–Break up?" Zhuo Shu yanked a handful of grass from the ground, then carefully put it back as if trying to soothe his own emotions. His chest felt oddly hot. "We weren’t even dating—what is there to break up from?"
"In terms of your relationship, it just means he’s really trying to end your sponsorship arrangement," Mi Shu replied.
A bucket of cold water seemed to pour over Zhuo Shu’s chest. His expression stiffened. "So why exactly does he want to end things? Have I treated him badly?"
And just like that, they had gone full circle.
Mi Shu responded, "There are three possible reasons. One, you’ve been neglecting him in some way. Maybe you haven't given him what he truly wants, and now he wants to break free from this ‘canary’ relationship."
"I gave him a car, a house, and money—everything I should have given. How is that neglect?" Zhuo Shu was confused. "As for what he truly wants... wait, could it be that I didn’t give him the right opportunities? He rejected Dao Yan’s film—does he want to break into Hollywood instead?"
Mi Shu said, "That can be a possibility. To be honest, when it comes to resources, you’re not exactly the most dedicated bankroller."
Zhuo Shu: "Watch your tone."
Mi Shu: "Understood _(:з」∠)_"
Zhuo Shu continued, "What’s the second possibility?"
Mi Shu snapped her fingers. "Second possibility—his sense of independence and freedom has awakened. He wants to break free from his ‘canary’ status, escape the cage, shake off the oppressive forces, and soar freely into the blue sky."
Zhuo Shu kept plucking at the grassy grass. "Why would he suddenly have an awakening?"
"Maybe he was triggered by something, or maybe there was a small mistake in the details," Mi Shu said. "Think about your interactions with him. Have you ever said or done anything excessive? Some little canaries have weak psychological endurance—the calmer they seem on the surface, the more wounds they actually carry inside. One gust of wind, and they might collapse."
Zhuo Shu sighed. "That sounds tragic."
"..." Mi Shu went silent for a moment. "I think I might have an idea why Mr. Ying wants to cut ties with you."
"Why?"
To save her job, Mi Shu skipped over that deadly question and said, "There's one last possibility. Do you have a wall nearby?"
"Yeah." Zhuo Shu asked, "Why?"
Mi Shu: "Lean against it first."
"Alright, I’m leaning." Zhuo Shu pressed his back against the wall. "Now tell me—what is it?"
"The third possibility—he's simply lost interest in you."
Zhuo Shu slid down the wall and plopped onto the grass. "He dares to lose interest in me?"
"That’s just how it is," Mi Shu said matter-of-factly. "If he meets a bankroller who’s gentler, more considerate, more understanding, taller, hotter, better in bed, and just overall flawless—do you really think he’d still stick with you?"
"Unlikely." Zhuo Shu did a quick mental calculation. "The probability is way too low. I’m already the perfect bankroller. There’s no way he could find someone better than me."
"That’s just your belief," Mi Shu ruthlessly shattered his fantasy. "There’s always someone better out there. The world is big, and there’s always a stronger player behind the scenes. How do you know he hasn’t already found someone more powerful than you?"
An alarm went off in Zhuo Shu’s head. He suddenly remembered the last time he took Ying Tongchen to a banquet—where he had met quite a few elite young heirs. Not long after that, Ying Tongchen had started acting distant.
"I get it now." Zhuo Shu hung up the phone, got up from the grass, and trudged back into the living room, Atlas carrying the weight of the world.
Ying Tongchen was sipping tea when he saw him approach. His gaze paused for a moment before he casually said, "Did you roll on the ground outside? You’re covered in grass."
Zhuo Shu looked down at the grass stuck to his pant legs, patted it off, and muttered vaguely, "What, are you really that bothered by a little grass?"
"Yeah, I am," Ying Tongchen replied mercilessly.
"…Audacious!" Zhuo Shu shot him a glare but immediately remembered Mi Shu’s warning about excessive behavior. Quickly, he adjusted his expression, replacing his sharp look with what could almost be described as a gentle gaze.
Ying Tongchen felt a chill run down his spine. "Can you act normal? I have something to talk to you about."
Zhuo Shu sat down, deciding to get ahead of the situation by addressing the first possible reason. "Tell me. What resources do you want?"
"…?" Ying Tongchen was caught off guard. "Resources?"
"Yeah. You’ve been with me for so long, it’s about time I give you some. Tell me which director’s film you want to be in—I’ll invest more money and get you in." Zhuo Shu spoke with such seriousness that this was less like a good deed and more like repaying a lifetime’s worth of blood debt.
Ying Tongchen thought about it for a moment. It did make sense—he had been around for a while, and now Zhuo Shu was practically handing the resources to him. There was no reason to refuse, right? :)
"Alright then, I’ll be straightforward."
"Go ahead," Zhuo Shu relaxed slightly. So the issue really was about this—if he could solve it, everything would be fine.
Ying Tongchen glanced at the textbooks on the table and said, "I want the deluxe edition of NCEE Study Guide, Gaokao Mock Exam Compilation, and English Grammar Explained."
Zhuo Shu: "?"
Ying Tongchen added, "Let’s start with sixty sets."
Zhuo Shu looked at him in shock. "What do you need all that for?"
Ying Tongchen: "To give away."
"To who?" Zhuo Shu’s pupils shook. "It’s not for me, is it?!"
Ying Tongchen shook his head, and Zhuo Shu let out a sigh of relief.
But as Ying Tongchen looked at him, he lost the urge to joke around. Instead, he said seriously, "Actually, I came today to talk about our relationship. I think there’s been a misunderstanding. We—"
"Wait a minute, I’m not ready for this," Zhuo Shu interrupted, jumping to his feet. He spun around twice on the spot, then frantically pulled out his phone from his pocket. Muttering to himself as he headed for the door, he said, "The NCEE Study Guide, right? I’ll go buy it now."
Ying Tongchen watched Zhuo Shu’s retreating figure, realizing something felt off. He quickly got up and chased after him. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to buy the NCEE Study Guide." Zhuo Shu hurriedly jumped into his car and sped off.
Ying Tongchen: "..."
He immediately called Zhuo Shu, but no one answered. He sent a text, but there was no reply either.
Just as he was about to get into the Bentley to chase after him, one of the workers carrying a shovel approached. "Boss, if you leave, who’s going to pay us?"
Ying Tongchen looked at the empty street and sighed, abandoning his pursuit. "I’ll take care of it."
After paying the workers, one of them asked, "Where should we plant the remaining trees?"
Ying Tongchen had no choice but to stay and supervise. He picked a few good spots for them to dig and continued calling Zhuo Shu.
One of the workers, curious, asked from a distance, "Who are you calling, sir? Why is everyone in such a hurry?"
Ying Tongchen: "Everyone?"
The worker nodded. "Yeah, just now, the other gentleman was hiding around here, making a call. He was so worried. You see the patch of bare grass on the ground? That’s all because of him pulling it up."
Ying Tongchen glanced down and saw the uneven, messy patch of grass.
"..."
So he had something important at work?
He decided that once Zhuo Shu finished with his urgent matters, they would talk properly next time.
But what he hadn’t expected was that his urgent matter turned out to be so difficult to resolve. So much so that they never got to meet again, and not even a single phone call went through.
He asked Mi Shu for updates, but she only said that he was busy with work, overtime, and business trips. However, Mi Shu did send over the sixty sets of NCEE Study Guide and other materials to the apartment without comment, though her gaze toward him now carried a hint of admiration.
He was probably really busy, so Ying Tongchen could only focus on his own work.