Chapter 25

Heavy breathing came from the other end of the receiver.

He was waiting for me to speak.

I stared at the blurry reflection on the TV screen and tugged at the corner of my lips:

“Did I disturb your rest?”

He cleared his throat. Then, the click of his lighter.

“No. What’s wrong?”

“Zhou Heng…”

I called his name softly.

“I miss Louis…”

In the stillness of the night, my barely suppressed sobs sounded heart-wrenching.

“I dreamed of her playing with the voice buttons you bought. Her favorite was the ‘snack’ button. You said she ate too much and wanted to take that button off, but she sprawled on your chest and wouldn’t let you sleep…”

My words broke apart into fragments.

“Don’t cry, Yanyan…”

Zhou Heng was deeply attached to Louis.

When he was a child, he was chased by a dog, and it was the family cat that saved him.

After he started keeping cats himself, he practically treated Louis as his own child.

“Louis is gone, and you’re not here either.”

“Now there’s only me left…”

My voice lingered, yet my expression was frighteningly cold.

When I woke up the next day, I realized the call hadn’t ended.

After that, every day, Zhou Heng would send a few texts.

Like “Are you asleep?”

Like “It’s cold today, wear more clothes.”

Until the day of the board meeting.