"Why did you want to see me?" Shen Rui asked after taking an order for a cake at the cafe.
"This is about Hua Zhendan." Qiu Dawei said.
"What about him?"
"I wanted to wish him a happy new year, so I called him several times over the last couple of days. He didn't pick up."
"Okay?" Shen Rui tilted her head at the waiter who placed her cake in front of her.
"I got worried and went over to his place to check up on him."
Shen Rui took a bite out of her cake. She moaned satisfactorily. Then asked, "And?"
"He was a complete mess."
Shen Rui took another bite out of her cake.
"He was depressed and didn't seem to have been eating. His eyes were swollen like he had been crying and his room smelled like a cigarette factory."
"I've asked him many times to stop smoking." Shen Rui said and wiped the corner of her mouth.
"I don't know about you and your puppet, but I can't stand to see Hua Zhendan in that condition."