Deliberately Approaching
Chapter 200: Does He Only Like to Eat Noodles?

Chapter 200: Chapter 200: Does He Only Like to Eat Noodles?

The next morning, Leng Lingxiao arranged his work and immediately went to Building 29.

He wanted to spend more time with Tang Xiaowan.

"Tangtang, are you awake yet?"

"If you don’t speak up, I’m coming in."

"Tangtang, it’s me, Huahua."

Leng Lingxiao knocked on the door several times, but no one answered. Finally, he had to push the door and enter, only to see Tang Xiaowan sitting quietly beside the vanity.

She was still wearing the same clothes from when they had parted the day before.

A diary, a Nanhong Hunting Knife, and some personal documents and photos were placed beside her.

"Tangtang, what happened? Didn’t you hear me knocking? Why are you sitting here? Did you not sleep well last night?" Leng Lingxiao glanced at the vanity and asked anxiously.

Actually, the one who hadn’t slept well was himself, or rather, he hadn’t slept at all.

"Is the wound not inflamed?"

"No, it’s fine. What about you?"

"Last night, I had a very long dream and slept so deeply until daylight, no, until nine o’clock. Guess what I dreamed about?"

Leng Lingxiao messed with his hair a bit, and jokingly said, "You didn’t dream about me, did you?"

"Yes, you guessed it right."

Her tone was indifferent, and her voice was soft.

Leng Lingxiao: "?"

He had said it in jest, not expecting it to be true, and couldn’t hide his proud smile.

"Hurry up and pay me an appearance fee; I can’t let you dream for free. If you don’t have money, you can settle it with noodles for now. I don’t mind. Remember to add an egg."

However, Leng Lingxiao’s joke did not amuse Tang Xiaowan.

She had already discovered that the medication had been switched.

What Leng Lingxiao didn’t know was that Tang Xiaowan remembered clearly how many pills she had taken and how many were left. She just didn’t want to expose him.

The most crucial part was, the smell was different.

Tang Xiaowan didn’t know she had an exceptional sense of smell, but she indeed had sniffed it out. The formulas of the two medications were different, and so the smells could never be exactly the same, even though they were very close.

Huahua, you are afraid I’ll overdose, aren’t you?

If it were you, perhaps you’d be more anxious, maybe daring to take it three times a day.

Why can’t you understand me?

"Huahua, you..."

She started to speak but swallowed her words back down.

"What’s wrong, Tangtang? Is there something you want to say?" Leng Lingxiao felt a bit guilty under Tang Xiaowan’s gaze.

"Do you love to dream at night?"

"Oh, that... Occasionally, I guess."

"Some time ago, at Li Garden, I kept having dreams. I even dreamed about playing hide and seek, chasing and frolicking in the grass. I thought the person who was looking for me in my dreams, the one running wild with me, was Li Zishen. Now that I think about it, it’s just too ridiculous."

Tang Xiaowan said as she flipped through the photos, shaking her head.

This action deeply irritated Leng Lingxiao, who silently counted—there were 24 photos in total, all of them of Li Zishen and Tang Xiaowan together.

Even though they were just standing, with no intimate contact, it still made his teeth itch with irritation.

"Ridiculous? Wasn’t it him?"

"No, it wasn’t. Li Zishen kept telling me those days that he was my boyfriend, so I assumed the person in my dreams was him. But last night, I had a similar dream again. The hiding place wasn’t a wardrobe, but the secret passage in Mei Garden. The grass field where I was running wild... it was actually in the bamboo forest next to Mei Garden, not Li Zishen, it wasn’t him."

With that, Tang Xiaowan’s face was already streaming with tears.

"Don’t cry; here, wipe your tears. You’re so grown up and still such a crybaby." Leng Lingxiao gently said, pulling out a tissue.

"Huahua, you found me at Mei Garden at the beginning of September, right? And the diary under the pillow was also discovered around that time. Before that, I never remembered having a good friend named Huahua—you were the one in my dreams, the one who played hide-and-seek with me. Actually, Granny did mention you used to play hide-and-seek with me quite often."

Leng Lingxiao sighed softly and continued to help wipe away tears.

One tissue after another was used.

"Huahua, am I really that bad at distinguishing things, to not figure out even this?"

"No, no, it’s not your fault," he said. "You’ve just been misled by Li Zishen. He always thinks he can control everything and influence you. He’s too narcissistic."

Leng Lingxiao’s words were self-serving but also true.

Indeed, Li Zishen had been emphasizing his identity as her boyfriend, hoping he would be the only one Tang Xiaowan wouldn’t forget in her mind.

"Yeah, you’re right. He is quite narcissistic. He even said on the day of the incident, Cheng Shi called him because he trusted him."

Tang Xiaowan’s tears turned to laughter as she gazed steadily at Leng Lingxiao.

The man’s gaze was piercing, and his brows were furrowed deeply.

"Actually, that day, Cheng Shi’s first call was to me, but I was in Country Y, so I told him to call Li Zishen. Just to be safe, I also contacted two friends from Qingcheng until I confirmed you were safe and had been taken to Li Garden by Li Zishen."

Tang Xiaowan was surprised. "So you have Li Zishen’s number too. He claimed it was a private number, all lies."

"I don’t have it; Cheng Shi used your phone to call, and it just so happened I knew the password."

"So my phone was with Cheng Shi that day, no wonder I couldn’t find it when I woke up. Why would he take my phone?"

"You often throw things around carelessly; it’s not uncommon for him to hold onto them for you. Not just the phone, but even your keys and wallet."

"Oh, I see! Password? Did I used to set a password on my phone?"

"Yeah!"

Tang Xiaowan bit her lip, suddenly stood up, and asked, "How did you know my password? Did you snoop through my phone?"

Leng Lingxiao, a bit embarrassed by the question, hastily turned around and gave his forehead a couple of vigorous pats.

"Well, actually..."

"Spit it out, did you or did you not?"

"The password you set was too simple. It wasn’t really snooping, and besides, you never changed it even after you knew I had seen it, which shows that... deep down, you must have hoped I would see it."

"Nonsense, snooping is snooping!"

With that, Tang Xiaowan turned around, picked up the diary, and hurled it violently at Leng Lingxiao.

"Ow, that really hurts!"

"Stop pretending! It didn’t even hit your wound; I was watching when I threw it, and I aimed it downwards a bit on purpose."

"Wow, you’re just being unreasonable. Skin is connected; of course it hurts!"

"The little dog didn’t complain of pain yesterday."

Dropping that line, Tang Xiaowan ran off, dashing down to the kitchen.

Her speed was very fast, like a little rabbit.

Early in the morning, just as the sky was brightening, Granny Yu had gone to the market and bought the fennel seedlings and pork belly Tang Xiaowan loved. By now, the dumplings were all wrapped, and she was frying pregnant peppers and eggplant slices as well.

"Wow, so much delicious food!"

Just as Tang Xiaowan was about to reach for an eggplant slice, Granny Yu chuckled and said, "Miss, you finally woke up. Meijuan went to school early in the morning to ask for leave on your behalf. The counselor is quite nice, very easy to talk to."

"It’s Meijuan who is thoughtful; actually, it was the smell of fennel that woke me up, otherwise I would have slept in longer."

"Are you hungry? It’s almost mealtime. Why hasn’t Mr. Leng come down yet?"

Tang Xiaowan pursed her lips and raised her voice: "Don’t wait for him, he only likes to eat noodles, we’ll just eat the dumplings ourselves."

She said this loudly on purpose, still annoyed with him for secretly changing her medication.

Immediately after, a loud shout came from upstairs.

"Granny Yu, Tangtang is awake. Can we start boiling the dumplings now?"

"Yes, yes, I’ll boil the water right away."