Chapter 24
The pain in her palm was sharp enough to make her head spin. Jiang Chao was seeing someone like Sheng Huaixi for the first time.
Deliberately hurting herself, treating her own life like it was nothing—like weeds, like dead wood.
Once might be an accident; twice might be a coincidence; three times was the truth.
And Sheng Huaixi had already shown Jiang Chao three times that she didn’t care what happened to herself.
The first time was at the restaurant when they were eating together, the second was when she fought with Zhou Xu, and the third was when she dealt with the porcelain vase Zhou Xu threw at her.
Her gaze shifted, and Jiang Chao couldn’t help looking at Sheng Huaixi’s wrist, freshly wrapped in bandages. The gauze was neat and even, binding her wrist all over again.
It had been less than a month since Sheng Huaixi last came to the hospital.
The wrist Jiang Chao had painstakingly cared for, the wound that had finally begun to heal—all of it had turned to foam.
Sheng Huaixi had blown it all away herself, decisively.
Jiang Chao didn’t understand why Sheng Huaixi would do this. Wasn’t that her right hand? Even if she was confident, one misstep could still leave her disabled.
“Why?” Jiang Chao murmured, dazed, as though she had run into a madwoman whose thoughts were unlike anyone else’s.
She felt like she had walked straight into a dead end, surrounded on all sides by walls called Sheng Huaixi. Jiang Chao couldn’t understand them, couldn’t get past them, and was forced to turn and turn inside their enclosure.
Her wrist lifted unconsciously as Jiang Chao caught at Sheng Huaixi’s clothes, her eyes trembling as she asked again, “Why did you do that, Sheng Huaixi?”
“Can you lift your head and look at me when you say that, Jiang Chao?”
Sheng Huaixi didn’t answer her question. Instead, she gently stroked Jiang Chao’s cheek and spoke in a low voice about something completely unrelated, with a faint plea hidden between the lines.
Jiang Chao followed blankly, still not understanding why Sheng Huaixi was bringing up this matter.
“Okay.” With a low laugh, Sheng Huaixi bent lower, bringing them eye to eye.
Two sets of peach-blossom eyes met, but one had lost its original brightness and was clouded with a faint mist.
Seeing the real confusion and anger in Jiang Chao’s eyes, Sheng Huaixi suddenly broke into a brilliant smile. Amusement flashed in the depths of her gaze; it was beautiful and moving, yet it made Jiang Chao feel inexplicably strange.
“Of course it’s because I wanted to.”
Her smile was dazzling, but the coolness in her words made Jiang Chao feel chilled all the way through, her thoughts unable to settle.
In a daze, Jiang Chao narrowed her eyes and met the gaze before her.
Beneath that beautiful exterior seemed to hide a heart completely indifferent to life.
This was someone she had never encountered before.
White-hot light spilled through her long lashes into the depths of those dark eyes. Jiang Chao blinked and was forced to see clearly the emotions in Sheng Huaixi’s gaze.
Unconcealed madness, a surging, unrestrained fascination, and—
Desire trembling beneath the palm that was stroking her cheek.
The hand on her face was trembling. Rather than comfort, Jiang Chao looked into Sheng Huaixi’s eyes and saw a trace of slyness that made her believe this was more teasing than consolation.
“You’re insane.”
Jiang Chao heard her own throat give out a dry, hoarse sound. Her hands and feet trembled, yet she still stared fixedly at the tenderness and ease on Sheng Huaixi’s face.
Her heartbeat surged with the blood rushing through her body; beneath the thin skin, she was forced to focus, and Jiang Chao couldn’t help shivering slightly.
It was fear, rising from the very depths of her body because of Sheng Huaixi.
It was hard not to be afraid.
But beyond that, there was another feeling; a strange hint of familiarity.
Where did that familiarity come from? Why did she feel this way? How could it feel familiar?
Jiang Chao didn’t know.
She stood frozen in place, completely lost in her own thoughts, her expression flickering back and forth.
Sheng Huaixi watched her without blinking. When she noticed Jiang Chao spacing out, her eyes narrowed in displeasure. She bit across her lip, swallowing the remaining lipstick, then slowly pressed her lips together.
Instinctively, Sheng Huaixi looked at the silent, distracted Jiang Chao, and a trace of unease surfaced in her heart. The pressure of her fingertips against Jiang Chao’s cheek increased.
“Mm!” The slight pain on her cheek drew Jiang Chao back to herself. Her brow creased as she said, “You hurt me.”
“Mm, sorry.” Sheng Huaixi smiled faintly in apology. After forcefully drawing Jiang Chao’s attention back to herself, the dissatisfaction in her eyes gradually faded.
Jiang Chao couldn’t see much sincerity in the smile on her face, but she had no mind to argue over such a small matter with Sheng Huaixi.
She was very tired right now.
The exhaustion rising in her heart, the unusually frequent suspicion, the repeated stirrings of emotion—all of it had already left Jiang Chao drained.
If the person before her hadn’t been Sheng Huaixi, Jiang Chao would already have leaned against her to rest for a while.
But this was Sheng Huaixi, and in the end all of Jiang Chao’s complicated emotions turned into a soft sigh.
“Let’s go home.” She needed to think carefully about how to get along with Sheng Huaixi.
In the spreading silence, both of them kept their own thoughts.
A laugh broke the white silence. Sheng Huaixi smiled sweetly and asked, “Do you still want to take this madwoman home?”
She leaned down, folding herself over Jiang Chao. Her voice was seductive, and her fingertips absentmindedly stroked the soft curve of Jiang Chao’s cheek.
The pad of her finger was warm and soft as it slid down.
In the teasing that still left room to breathe, Sheng Huaixi lowered her long lashes. The shadow they cast trembled strangely with the flow of the air.
Her gaze remained fixed on Jiang Chao. A thousand emotions flashed by before settling into a cold, deep kind of obsession, faintly gleaming with chill light.
Don’t reject me, Jiang Chao.
Her fingertip sank into the softness of Jiang Chao’s cheek. The skin there was cool; Sheng Huaixi’s lips had gone faintly pale, and in her eyes, a vivid red slowly spread outward, dangerous and pitiable.
Against the white wall and down the long corridor, the two women stood close together, one tall and one short, cheeks touching, hair intertwined. To an outsider, it would only seem comforting.
Their breaths mingled, yet there was not a single point where their skin actually touched.
Hair fell over Jiang Chao’s cheek. As expected, Sheng Huaixi saw surprise in her eyes, and the motion of her fingertips slowed.
“Is that not okay?” Sheng Huaixi’s brow darkened. Her unrestrained features lowered as her voice also fell.
She looked so pitiful, like a dog that had been beaten down.
Jiang Chao felt her heart tighten. Before her mind could even catch up, her mouth had already answered.
“It’s okay.”
The last syllable fell, and Jiang Chao watched the drowning dog in front of her instantly transform into a champion-bred hound, its coat glossy, its spirit alive.
The smile in Sheng Huaixi’s eyes was like a little daisy swaying brightly in the wind, bright enough to light up the surrounding pallor and dispel the fatigue in Jiang Chao’s heart.
Jiang Chao stared at her, dazed, forgetting what she said afterward, only remembering the person before her smiling at her with a touch more sweetness at the corner of her lips.
“You’re really good-looking.”
Loyal to appearances, she gave the praise in her heart without hesitation.
*
Could she go back in time and slap herself awake?
Cars streamed past outside the window. Jiang Chao rested her cheek on her hand and recalled the moment, frowning in annoyance.
She tried hard to remember what she had been thinking when she heard Sheng Huaixi’s question at the hospital, and how she had ended up giving such a direct answer.
She had clearly just exposed the face of a wolf the very next second, then turned around and brought that wolf home.
Even worse, the time before she could leave might be endless, enough to drive her to despair...
Because everything was unknown, she didn’t even know what else Sheng Huaixi might do.
It was all that damn sense of morality’s fault.
Her lips parted. Jiang Chao turned, about to say something, but out of the corner of her eye she caught Sheng Huaixi’s injured wrist.
Layer after layer of white gauze wrapped carefully around Sheng Huaixi’s wrist.
The blinding bloodstains, the trembling wrist...
The wounds she had just seen flashed one by one through Jiang Chao’s mind. Her lips opened and closed, but in the end not a single word came out; she swallowed everything back.
No matter whether Sheng Huaixi’s injury had been deliberate or not, one thing was certain—
Both the restaurant last time and Zhou Xu this time, Sheng Huaixi’s injuries had something to do with her.
Jiang Chao couldn’t deny that.
A fuse, protection, retaliation...
Just thinking casually, several reasons immediately sprang into Jiang Chao’s head.
Just one of them already made it impossible for Jiang Chao to simply let Sheng Huaixi drift in front of her, let alone all of them stacked together.
The reproach of conscience would make Jiang Chao unable to face Sheng Huaixi.
So, in the end, Sheng Huaixi was treated like this—
Jiang Chao, full of pity, led her home in the car.
She must have been subtly infected by Sheng Huaixi’s madness!
Otherwise, how could she have actively brought such a fierce wolf home and even been so attentive to her?
The lights outside the car window fell across Jiang Chao’s side profile, leaving it in shadow. Between her lips, the outline of clenched teeth showed faintly as her thoughts drifted.
Thinking to herself, she kept rubbing the fingertip pressed to her cheek, feeling as though Sheng Huaixi’s palm and scent still remained there.
Sheng Huaixi’s scent was like the person herself; it was fiercely invasive, silently and overbearingly claiming everything it touched.
Next time, she absolutely could not be fooled by that gentle facade again.
Jiang Chao gave this definition to her own pity just moments ago, and her teeth clenched and unclenched.
After a while, looking at the figure reflected in the car window, Jiang Chao let out a rather helpless breath and loosened up again.
Why was she even fighting herself about this?
Wasn’t the person already coming home with her?
Jiang Chao emptied her mind, letting her gaze drift without a fixed point across the reflection in the window, the banners pasted with advertisements, and finally stopping on Sheng Huaixi’s cool, calm profile.
Sheng Huaixi was quietly looking out the car window. The dim light brushed past, and her long lashes trembled.
For a moment, Jiang Chao thought she seemed almost gentle right now, like a dream.
After getting in the car, they had not said another word. Jiang Chao had been immersed in her own endless struggle and regret, so she didn’t speak.
Only now did her thoughts truly return.
And now, looking at Sheng Huaixi’s calm, even lazy posture, Jiang Chao suddenly felt a bit of inexplicable anger.
Why was Sheng Huaixi so relaxed, as if nothing had happened at all?
It was as if she was the only one still trapped in the confrontation from the hospital.
This wasn’t over yet, was it?
“You owe me two explanations.”
Jiang Chao turned her body; in the backseat, a silhouette suddenly tilted past as a soft voice lightly sounded.
After leaning close to Sheng Huaixi’s ear to say it, Jiang Chao caught the long leg moving in her peripheral vision and quickly sat back into her original position.
She left Sheng Huaixi only a perfect side profile, her lips pressed tightly shut.
She looked determined not to say another word, leaving Sheng Huaixi to think it through herself.
Jiang Chao stared hard at the reflection in the window. After quite a while, Sheng Huaixi still remained in her original posture.
It was as though what she’d just said had been spoken into the air.
Had she spoken too fast, and Sheng Huaixi not heard her? Why was there no reaction at all?
Jiang Chao was puzzled and unconsciously focused more closely on the window, afraid of missing even the slightest movement.
Until her little finger was hooked by another knuckle.
“Mm!” The startled cry in her throat was instantly swallowed back by Jiang Chao. She twisted her neck down to look.
On the black leather seat, where there had originally been only Jiang Chao’s wrist lying alone, there were now two intertwined hands; the little fingers at the ends were clasped together, pale and slender.
Seeing this, the first thought that popped into Jiang Chao’s head was: couldn’t Sheng Huaixi just hold her whole hand directly?
Since she had already silently reached for her hand, since she wanted to hold hands, why not just take it directly?
Was she shy?
No, Jiang Chao blinked and shoved the random thoughts aside.
Rather than playing psychologist here, she should first shake off Sheng Huaixi, who had taken her hand without permission.
But...
Jiang Chao’s gaze turned with difficulty. Reflected in the car window was the genuine conflict in her eyes.
Coincidentally, the hand Sheng Huaixi had taken was the injured one.
The bandage faintly visible at the cuff, the ointment newly applied on the back of her hand, all of it drifted in the silent car, hovering before Jiang Chao’s eyes.
The cool smell of ointment lingered at the tip of her nose, and there was also that annoying cedar scent.
Her tongue frantically swept across the roof of her mouth. After hesitating for a long time, Jiang Chao relaxed her shoulders and completely gave up on the idea of pulling her wrist away and ruining Sheng Huaixi’s little scheme.
She comforted herself that it was morality that made her unable to do it, not that she couldn’t bear to.
How could she possibly bear to shake off Sheng Huaixi’s pitiful little wrist?
Night lights flashed outside. In the car window, Jiang Chao’s reflection looked soft-eyed and lowered-browed, carrying a tender expression even she herself hadn’t noticed; perhaps she was naturally gentle.
She released her charm without realizing it.
The tongue that had been bitten down so hard at last loosened. A faint taste of blood spread in her mouth. Sheng Huaixi stared at Jiang Chao in the reflection in the window, and the nerves that had been taut all the way finally relaxed.
Enchanted, she curved her eyes. The sharpness around Sheng Huaixi softened without a sound.
Though it was a little unbelievable, it seemed her irritability had been soothed at this moment; the restlessness in her heart, which had been churning without pause, was slowly smoothed over.
The unease of being abandoned by Jiang Chao, the fear that she might see fear in Jiang Chao’s eyes and be burned by it...
All of it vanished completely because of Jiang Chao’s small bit of indulgence.
Sheng Huaixi lifted the corners of her lips and hooked her little finger a little tighter.
The rest of the way, neither of them spoke again, and no one took the initiative to let go.
They let their little fingers remain tangled together, silently entwined in the blurred glow of the lights.
Skin kissed skin, and the two delicate knuckles seemed to share one long, passionate kiss.
The driver played an old Hong Kong love song, singing low and high in endless tenderness, rising and falling in the sea called love, tossed high by the waves and brought back down again.
A standard tale of sorrow and longing.
It had sung all the way, with two loyal, silent listeners.
“How many springs and autumns the wind and rain have changed; how many rough roads still leave love unchanged.”
The singer meant nothing by it, but the listener did.
In the sad melody, what the first-time listener understood as love, the dreamy light in her eyes gradually settled into certainty.
Wasn’t this exactly what she had hoped for, for Jiang Chao to know what her true face was like?
After exposing her true nature, perhaps things between her and Jiang Chao would become rougher, but so what?
Sheng Huaixi turned her eyes aside. Her gaze was obsessive, deep as thick ink, and a dense tenderness stirred within it.
What she wanted, she would surely get.
Her long lashes trembled in the night like a butterfly breaking free of its cocoon, shedding the shell that bound it and showing its original form without any concern.
Beautiful, but dangerous.
Without question, as another butterfly, compared with Jiang Chao’s harmlessness, Sheng Huaixi saw herself as an African swallowtail butterfly: gorgeous, beautiful, and one of the most toxic among butterflies.
A butterfly flutters its wings once; the tiny breeze it stirs may merge with other currents and bring about a completely different change in weather.
So then, if she, this butterfly, revealed herself in advance, what changes would that bring to her and Jiang Chao?
Her red tongue slowly licked across her lips. Sheng Huaixi lowered her eyes, the corner of her mouth lifting in anticipation, her interest deep and rich.
Would she get more, more obvious attention from Jiang Chao?
The wrists they held together were finally released at the doorway.
Sheng Huaixi looked at the little finger that had just let go, and an unmistakable trace of attachment flashed through her features.
Just that little while had been enough for her to become addicted to walking hand in hand with Jiang Chao; it was reassuring.
Their swaying arms were like a rope connecting her and Jiang Chao, binding them together.
Sheng Huaixi liked this clinginess; she hoped for something that would not part them.
“Change your shoes.” Jiang Chao took out a new pair of slippers and set them neatly down.
The door stood open, and warm yellow lights lit up one by one, sending a comforting feeling rushing over them.
Sheng Huaixi lowered her head. A little brown lion blinked cutely at her from the fluffy cotton slippers.
Very cute, very warm, completely different from the cool sandals she wore year-round at home.
“People always say a pair of slippers suits a person. Do you think these new slippers suit me?”
Sheng Huaixi stepped into the cotton slippers, closed the door behind her, and followed Jiang Chao as she asked. When she got no answer, she wasn’t in a hurry; she clasped her hands behind her back and continued.
“Or did you think that when you bought them, but now you’re thinking, tsk, you must have been out of your mind back then, how could you buy such cute slippers for her?”
Jiang Chao headed straight for her own room without a word, treating everything Sheng Huaixi said in her ear as empty noise, nonsense—anything but the truth.
As long as she didn’t acknowledge Sheng Huaixi’s words, then they weren’t true.
Jiang Chao rushed into her room with her head down, forcefully ignoring the careless chatter behind her, one sentence after another, each stepping squarely on her heart.
The beautiful image she had imagined while shopping flashed frame by frame in her mind. Jiang Chao had been looking forward to how Sheng Huaixi would look in the cute cotton slippers.
But there was absolutely no way she could tell Sheng Huaixi that now.
And yet her body insisted on betraying her.
Her ears burned red, her heartbeat was boiling, her steps were messy—all of these were proof she had exposed herself.
Jiang Chao could only pray that the “expert” behind her wouldn’t notice these clues.
She had only bought her a new pair of slippers, and Sheng Huaixi had followed her all the way, talking nonstop. That was a bit too much.
Muttering inwardly, Jiang Chao walked straight into the room, only for the footsteps behind her to follow in without hesitation.
“Hm?” Turning around abruptly, Jiang Chao raised her brows high and pointed a finger at herself. “This is my room.”
Tilting her head, Sheng Huaixi pulled back the foot that had been about to step in and stood obediently by the door. “Didn’t you say I owe you two explanations? You don’t want to hear them?”
A bullet called self-inflicted consequences struck Jiang Chao squarely between the brows.
Her words caught in her throat. Looking at Sheng Huaixi, who was truly standing obediently at the door and ready to turn back at any moment, Jiang Chao ultimately abandoned the idea of saving face in favor of settling accounts.
“Come in.” She ground out the two words through clenched teeth.
Only after receiving the room owner’s permission did Sheng Huaixi slowly walk in.
Looking at Jiang Chao’s angry retreating back, the smile in her eyes spread softly.
“Sit here.” Jiang Chao pulled over a chair and placed it in front of Sheng Huaixi, pointing at it with no room for refusal.
Sheng Huaixi glanced at it and obediently sat down.
So obedient it was almost absurd.
Compared to her madness just now, she was like a completely different person.
Jiang Chao turned around, and the dull thud of a hand hitting the armrest sounded out.
She braced both hands on the chair arms, trapping Sheng Huaixi in the small space before her in an absolutely forceful posture, staring at her without blinking, focused to the point of intensity.
Their faces were only a hand’s breadth apart as they looked at each other.
With her newly revised understanding, Jiang Chao slowly examined Sheng Huaixi.
Since she had dragged a wolf home, she might as well get to know this person properly, hair by hair, from the very top down.
And the person being examined so carefully, Sheng Huaixi, was perfectly calm.
She sat upright, her posture elegant and steady as always, even leaning back with a smile into a more relaxed pose.
She treated herself like an item in a display window, showing her most beautiful side in hopes of being cherished.
Seeing Sheng Huaixi’s unhurried demeanor, Jiang Chao’s brow furrowed. The anger she had barely suppressed surged back up again.
“Sheng Huaixi.” Jiang Chao lowered her body, nose to nose with her, striving to make herself seem more oppressive in Sheng Huaixi’s eyes.
Sheng Huaixi answered softly, her thighs shifting as her knees rubbed lightly together.
They met each other’s gaze.
The person before Jiang Chao—
Her bright, spring-lit eyes blinked slowly; the deep lines of her brows and eyes had shed their usual coldness and bloomed into softness. It was a completely different side.
The standing snow pine bent its back for her.
No one could resist this kind of temptation.
“Do you like it?” Sheng Huaixi asked with a smile.
Jiang Chao instinctively nodded. The spring brightness before her suddenly blossomed even more vividly, and that excessive display immediately pulled her back from her daze.
“I don’t like it!” Jiang Chao retorted.
A clear trace of regret flashed across Sheng Huaixi’s face; she was sorry Jiang Chao had escaped so quickly from her deliberate seduction.
Lifting her left hand, Sheng Huaixi leaned back slightly and idly poked Jiang Chao’s chest, her posture loose and easy.
“It likes it, that’s enough.”
Her tone was vague, as if stating a fact and yet faintly carrying complaint.
This time Jiang Chao didn’t hesitate. Her ears flushing red, she decisively slapped Sheng Huaixi’s wrist away.
Drawing her hands back from either side, Jiang Chao stepped backward several paces, pinched the tips of her burning ears, and looked down at Sheng Huaixi. “Say something serious.”
Without hesitation, Sheng Huaixi leaned back in her chair, the supported seat pressing down with her movement. Crossing her arms, she denied it. “There’s nothing serious to say.”
Grinding her teeth, Jiang Chao looked at Sheng Huaixi’s unrestrained expression and suddenly felt as though she had brought a whole ancestor home to be served.
Not only did she have to take care of meals three times a day, she now had to think about her emotional state too.
Jiang Chao braced herself on Sheng Huaixi’s side, her expression faintly angry, speaking through clenched teeth.
“Then let’s talk about private matters.”
They looked at each other. Jiang Chao’s suppressed anger gradually rose.
The fire of being deceived showed on her face, only to be slowly pressed back down by the other person.
“What happened today— you did it on purpose, didn’t you?”
Jiang Chao pressed her lips together, and the palm hanging at her side clenched hard enough to leave marks.
When the two of them brought up the matter again, the nerves that had just eased in Jiang Chao’s body tightened once more, drawing taut like a string that could not be plucked.
One high, one low: Sheng Huaixi sat in the chair, her eyes half-lidded, and she did not rush to explain Jiang Chao’s words, only repeatedly toyed with the edge of the newly wrapped gauze on her wrist.
After a pause, Sheng Huaixi raised her brows and looked at Jiang Chao, a faint smile lurking in her eyes. “You’re very smart.”
Without responding to the praise, Jiang Chao lowered her gaze and went on.
“You deliberately went to find Zhou Xu and didn’t tell me, even though I was right across from you.”
“You told the guards in advance not to come near the noise over here; when the porcelain was thrown at you, you clearly could have dodged, but you insisted on using your hand to block it...”
One thing after another; on the way back, Jiang Chao carefully went over everything, and in the end reached a conclusion that made her skin crawl.
In this matter with Zhou Xu, Sheng Huaixi had interfered a great deal, and she hadn’t distinguished friend from foe at all; it was obviously deliberate.
And too many coincidences made Jiang Chao unwilling to think about it, but her sharp instincts still forced the truth right before her eyes.
One tiny detail after another connected into a broad spread of evidence. Arriving at the answer was easy.
Finally, Jiang Chao looked at the person sitting quietly before her, listening to her slow analysis without the slightest panic, and said with a sigh,
“Sheng Huaixi, you’re really insane.”
Not praise; just a calm statement of fact.
After the words fell, the room remained silent for a long time. No one spoke first.
With all that had been said and the passage of time to settle things, the anger in Jiang Chao’s heart had cooled from an initial surge into something plain.
Lowering her lashes, she looked at Sheng Huaixi, who seemed to have fallen into thought. Her wrist, braced against the swivel chair arm, remained still for a long time and had already begun to tremble.
At this moment, her emotions were complicated.
To be honest, Jiang Chao herself didn’t know what kind of explanation she wanted to hear before she would be satisfied; there wasn’t really a standard answer.
Or maybe she just wanted some statement from Sheng Huaixi, any statement at all, something to placate the feelings of being deceived.
After all, Jiang Chao had long known what kind of madwoman Sheng Huaixi was, hadn’t she?
Everything Sheng Huaixi had done so far was still within the bounds of imagination.
But even if she was crazy, what was the point of scheming to trap and deceive her?
Jiang Chao let out a soft sigh.
To anyone else, that sigh might have sounded like a faint surrender.
The silence by her ear was broken at once.
“Three.” Sheng Huaixi suddenly spoke, raising her eyes to meet Jiang Chao’s, her voice rough and hurried, emphasizing, “I owe you three explanations.”
Before Jiang Chao could react to the words, another warm hand covered the back of the one she had resting on the armrest. The palm was warm.
Jiang Chao, who had wanted to struggle free, went rigid after moving only once. She lifted her eyes in some surprise toward Sheng Huaixi.
Wasn’t she just pretending to be mute?
Her throat bobbed. Jiang Chao stayed where she was and asked, “Which three?”
“The phone, deceiving you, and self-harm.”
Sheng Huaixi counted them one by one, clearly and without the slightest hesitation.
Her chin lifted slightly, broken points of light gleaming in her eyes as she stared unblinkingly at Jiang Chao. Her fragile heart was pulled high, as though she were walking a tightrope in midair.
She was afraid of making the wrong step and hearing that sigh again.
Just one soft sigh from Jiang Chao, yet Sheng Huaixi already seemed to see her fear after learning her true face, and then her moving farther and farther away.
For Sheng Huaixi, that would be the most painful thing of all.
Without Jiang Chao’s attention, what was the use of all those little tricks she’d used before? They would only turn into bubbles no one cared about, floating away into the air.
Sheng Huaixi didn’t dare keep silent any longer.
A brief silence might bring temporary calm, but if she never spoke, would Jiang Chao really let go of this concern?
She had always known, hadn’t she?
How to walk the correct path into Jiang Chao’s heart.
Her palm pressed over Jiang Chao’s wrist, exhaling slowly, Sheng Huaixi lifted her eyes again, returning to her original expression, like a still lake.
“Actually, all three have one common explanation.”
Jiang Chao blinked in confusion. “What is it?”
Her bafflement was written plainly across her eyes. Sheng Huaixi waited a long while, staring deeply into the emotions there, as though trying to find something inside them.
Until Jiang Chao couldn’t bear the curiosity in her chest any longer and the fingers pinned beneath Sheng Huaixi’s hand poked lightly at her palm; only then did that gaze finally drift away.
Another long silence. The thick curiosity was like a white feather brushing back and forth across Jiang Chao’s trembling heart, ticklish and restless.
She couldn’t help leaning closer again, her lips parting slightly, just about to speak—
“Because I want you to care about me.”
A clap of thunder exploded outside the window. Her heart lurched violently, and Jiang Chao instinctively covered her ears. She only saw Sheng Huaixi’s lips moving, but didn’t hear what she said.
The aftershock of the thunder still lingered. Jiang Chao didn’t dare fully let go of the hand covering her ear.
“What did you just say? I didn’t hear clearly.” Blinking, Jiang Chao tried her best to keep her expression composed. “Say it again.”
Her teeth moved slightly. Sheng Huaixi narrowed her eyes at Jiang Chao, who still had one ear half-covered and was leaning over to listen, and a shadowy glint flashed through her gaze.
“Mm?!”
Her collar was suddenly yanked. Jiang Chao lowered her head in shock, looking at the distinct hand pulling her clothes down. The seated Sheng Huaixi leaned in close.
“I said,” Sheng Huaixi murmured into her ear, her gaze fixed tightly on the trembling scarlet earlobe before her, repeating each word, “because I want you to care about me.”
“Me?!” Jiang Chao’s heart jolted. She could hardly believe the reason she had just heard.
Sheng Huaixi wanted her concern?!
The collar she’d grabbed had already loosened, but Jiang Chao still kept the same listening posture, stunned into losing all expression control by that one sentence.
She froze in place, eyes wide, disbelief flashing in her pupils.
“Your expression like that makes me sad.”
The warning by her ear drifted in softly. Jiang Chao came back to herself, still doubting whether she had heard wrong.
“No, no... I don’t understand, Sheng Huaixi.”
Turning around, Jiang Chao paced back and forth inside the room. Panic and confusion flashed in her eyes from time to time; her heart thudded like a drum, and countless possibilities crossed her mind only to be rejected one by one.
She turned around again and again, looking toward Sheng Huaixi.
“You’re saying you secretly put your phone under my bed just so I’d care about you?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Chao slapped her own arm, then wrapped it around herself and circled in agitation, unable to stay calm.
Sheng Huaixi rested her chin in her hand, her pupils following her left and right, unwearied.
Only after Jiang Chao forced herself to calm down did she turn and ask again.
“You deliberately didn’t tell me Zhou Xu was the one looking for you, deliberately let the guards come slowly, and even deliberately injured your own hand; all of that was to make me care about you?!”
Sheng Huaixi admitted it: “All of it.”
After a pause, seeing the dazed shock on Jiang Chao’s face, Sheng Huaixi still swallowed the rest; and they were all effective methods.
Jiang Chao was completely flustered. Shocked by Sheng Huaixi’s confession, she could barely stand steadily. Everything in front of her blurred, and her instincts drove her toward the bed.
With a thud, she buried herself in the mattress, motionless, the world in front of her blacked out.
For the first time, Jiang Chao had encountered a madwoman like Sheng Huaixi, one who acted with complete abandon.
Meeting one was enough to make her panic, of course, but what made her even more confused now was that Sheng Huaixi had said this had all been because she wanted Jiang Chao’s concern?
Jiang Chao thought carefully and confirmed the facts.
Sheng Huaixi’s recent emotional breakdowns—she, Jiang Chao, had been there for all of them.
“Hey, Sheng Huaixi.” From behind the dinosaur pillow, a disheveled head finally poked out.
Sheng Huaixi, left to one side, wasn’t anxious at all. She waited patiently, and at the sound of Jiang Chao’s voice, blinked. “What?”
“Did we know each other before?”
Jiang Chao peeked out and asked that carefully. Seeing the smile on Sheng Huaixi’s lips freeze, she decisively shrank back to the mattress and used the dark-green dinosaur to block that deep, piercing gaze.
The gaze on her body lingered for a long while before Jiang Chao finally got an answer.
“You’re asking me to remember the things you don’t remember?”
Her voice was low. Jiang Chao put down the dinosaur and looked up, seeing a face that had gone cold and expressionless, the thin eyelids hanging calmly.
“Are you unhappy?” Jiang Chao sat up with the plush toy in her arms. The soft stuffed animal pressed against her chest, bringing a faint sense of safety and settling her emotions.
Sheng Huaixi pressed her lips together, not denying it.
“I just want to know why you said that earlier. After all, it can’t be because I happened to help on the day I joined the company..."
“That’s exactly why.”
Before Jiang Chao could continue, Sheng Huaixi cut her off. The seated figure suddenly stood and took a step toward her.
Her arms tightening unconsciously, Jiang Chao hugged the toy in her arms more firmly, as though seeking a trace of security from the pressure.
Sheng Huaixi walked slowly to the bedside and looked down at her.
Her throat moving, Jiang Chao’s womanly instinct began warning her. She suddenly felt that Sheng Huaixi’s posture was a little dangerous.
Or rather, ever since Sheng Huaixi had said she wanted Jiang Chao’s concern, the atmosphere in the room had become faintly subtle.
“Don’t be nervous.” Under Jiang Chao’s gaze, Sheng Huaixi suddenly curved her eyes and lightly rested her fingertips on Jiang Chao’s ankle, her long knuckles standing upright there.
A chill spread. Jiang Chao couldn’t help drawing her ankle back; she became even more nervous.
Her fingers sank into the plush toy, her nails going white with alarm. Jiang Chao wanted to dodge, but the fingertip resting on her ankle seemed to stir restlessly.
Light fell over Sheng Huaixi, washing her in a layer of sacred glow.
The lust in Jiang Chao’s eyes stripped that purity away and instead made her seem even more dangerous.
As Sheng Huaixi drew closer, the cold scent of cedar grew stronger. A little dent formed in the mattress. Jiang Chao looked at that well-defined hand, and unease spread through her.
The two figures on the big bed slowly drew nearer.
“Curiosity, interest, desire... any of those can be an explanation.”
Sheng Huaixi braced one hand on the bed and leaned down, speaking softly.
Her soft body drew little by little closer. The smiling face pressing near forced Jiang Chao to lean back involuntarily; her breathing trembled, and her waist shook violently.
“Don’t..."
Backpedaling, struggling, with the other person pressing in without giving her room to refuse, Jiang Chao’s back finally came to rest on the bed. Seeing that pale, slender neck before her, her breath caught tight.
“And you’re so smart, you must be able to think of plenty of reasons too, right..."
That fingertip lingering at her ankle slowly climbed upward; a faint current of electricity flashed across her skin, carrying away a strip of tingling heat.
Her ankle trembling lightly, Jiang Chao narrowed her eyes at Sheng Huaixi, who was bathed in the beam of light before her. She wanted to speak; her lips trembled for a long while, but looking at the obsession in Sheng Huaixi’s eyes, she said nothing.
“But all of them ultimately have only one purpose—”
“To want your one-of-a-kind concern.”
As the words fell, that roaming fingertip just happened to rest against Jiang Chao’s chest, sinking into the softness there.
Meeting Jiang Chao’s slightly stunned gaze, Sheng Huaixi curved her lips into a smile and openly revealed the desire hidden in her eyes to her.
Between her lips, the faintest trace of red tongue showed, restrained and waiting.
Jiang Chao blinked back to herself. Sheng Huaixi had already stood up, and the dangerous pressure around her had fully receded.
Lowering her head, Sheng Huaixi bent down and took off the slipper dangling precariously from Jiang Chao’s ankle, then set it neatly on the floor.
“Good night.”
On the bed, Jiang Chao’s face was flushed red, her breathing chaotic. She stared at Sheng Huaixi’s retreating back for a long time without coming back to herself.
Only belatedly did she realize—
Had Sheng Huaixi just been flirting with her?
*
The night had slipped away most of the way; the room was silent, the steady sound of breathing deep and even.
The tightly closed door opened a crack, and a woman slipped inside without a sound, her steps silent.
She stood motionless by the bedside. In the darkness, her gaze glimmered with a dark, hungry desire, slowly tracing across the figure on the bed.
That sticky, wet gaze covered her little by little, hoping to leave behind a mark that belonged only to her.
She stood for a long time, then suddenly lowered herself onto one knee, resting a wrist on the bed.
On the dimly lit bed, the wrist wrapped in white gauze bent with a heavy, aching sensation.
The person on the bed suddenly rolled over, one arm stretching out from under the quilt and spreading across the mattress.
Soft white in the darkness, it quietly gave rise to desire. The woman’s greedy gaze swept over it one point at a time; her tongue brushed the roof of her mouth.
She hesitated for only an instant before leaning down without the slightest delay.
She took the fingertips and held them in her palm, planting pecking kisses one after another on the knuckles, teasing one finger at a time into her lips. Her breathing came out slow and even as she savored them freely and wantonly.
Especially when she kissed the little finger.
The kisses were unhurried, not rushing to move on, simply advancing upward at her own pace.
The woman was greedy, desire running deep, leaving her marks in the gloomy night without the slightest restraint, slowly rolling up the sleepwear.
As the body kneeling on the floor leaned farther and farther forward, her nose pressed against skin and against the bed, reverently holding on and unwilling to let go.
Her knee shifted slightly. The woman’s gaze sparkled as she half-narrowed her eyes, pleased and excited, and kissed somewhere else.
“Sheng Huaixi.”
Her breath tightened. Sheng Huaixi’s body went rigid at the sudden call from Jiang Chao.
And her lips were still resting against the inside of Jiang Chao’s wrist.
TL Note:
African swallowtail butterfly (非洲长翅凤蝶) , used here as a metaphor for something beautiful but highly toxic and dangerous.
"ancestor (祖宗) used jokingly to mean someone who has to be treated like a pampered boss