Chapter 30

What was she going to do?

Jiang Chao watched Sheng Huaixi, who was walking far ahead of her, and cautiously slowed her pace, scratching at her cheek with her fingertips, confusion churning in her heart.

Back home, she sat there turning it over and over; the unease in her chest spread outward like a tide. Countless possibilities flashed through her mind one by one.

The danger of going out at night, Sheng Huaixi’s special situation... once those two were combined, the outcome was always bad.

Jiang Chao pressed her lips together and endured it for a moment. Her lips were bitten a lush red before she abruptly sprang up from the floor, changed her shoes, and hurried after Sheng Huaixi.

“Hiss—!”

As soon as she got downstairs, the warmth of Jiang Chao’s body was hit by the cold wind outside, making her shiver. She quickly pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt, stamped her feet, and hugged herself tighter.

The sharp temperature difference turned into a cold gust that slipped through the gaps in her clothes and stung her skin. Jiang Chao gripped the cuff of her sleeve, pressed herself against the branches by the roadside, and peeked carefully to watch Sheng Huaixi’s movements.

The streetlights along the road stretched Sheng Huaixi’s figure into a long shadow on the ground. Her head was lowered, and she seemed to be chatting with someone on her phone.

From such a distance, Jiang Chao squinted hard but still couldn’t make out the expression on her face.

The hair hanging over Jiang Chao’s cheeks concealed her spying.

“Who’s she going out with, being this mysterious.”

Her knuckles tightened unconsciously. The rough, cold trunk scraped her palm, but Jiang Chao didn’t notice at all; she stared fixedly at Sheng Huaixi.

She moved!

Jiang Chao’s gaze followed her as she went. She carefully let go of the trunk she had been clinging to and moved lightly, afraid of making even the slightest sound that might be heard by the person not far away.

Sheng Huaixi’s hearing was astonishingly sharp. If she was discovered right after setting out, she would definitely be deliberately shaken off.

Keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far, Jiang Chao walked along the inside of the street, avoiding the crowd passing by. She tucked her head down under her hood and said nothing.

Her eyes occasionally swept over Sheng Huaixi’s back.

The farther she went, the more people Jiang Chao found around her; bursts of excited cheers drifted in and out of her ears, mostly from young people.

After crossing several streets, the glaring neon lights flickered in rich, decadent colors, and the brilliant sign at the entrance was impossible to miss.

Jiang Chao hesitated and stopped, looking at Sheng Huaixi’s back as she walked inside, her expression blank with surprise.

A bar?

Sheng Huaixi had deliberately hidden this late-night outing from her, spoken such cold words saying it had nothing to do with her; all of that was just so she could come to a bar and have fun?

For a moment, Jiang Chao’s mind couldn’t turn the corner. She stood several meters from the entrance, the shop sign’s lights reflecting in her clear pupils, confusion flashing through her.

Did Sheng Huaixi really need to keep her in the dark just to come to a bar? Was she really going to stop Sheng Huaixi from going out?

A hundred thoughts swept through her mind. Jiang Chao paused in place, unsure whether she had exposed herself somewhere while following.

Bars were crowded and noisy. Jiang Chao had been to one in England before, but she was worried—

In a place full of all kinds of people, if Sheng Huaixi noticed her the moment she went in to look for her, then since Sheng Huaixi had gone to the trouble of hiding it from her, slipping away quietly wouldn’t be something she’d notice either.

Better to wait at the entrance and catch the rabbit in its own hole.

Biting her lip in conflict, Jiang Chao twisted the drawstring around her finger, frowning as she was just about to step forward, when something in her peripheral vision made her stop.

An unexpected person appeared.

Xu Jingwen.

Jiang Chao shifted her feet, quietly tugged the hood on her head lower to cover her face, pulled out her phone, and held it up as if she were making a video call.

She aimed the camera and lowered her eyes to the screen—

It really was Xu Jingwen, standing at the bar entrance with her head raised, one hand touching her face. After a long look at the sign with a slight curl of her lips, she led the people behind her straight into the bar.

Jiang Chao put away her phone. The wind cut across the back of her hand and knuckles, the chill licking at her skin and freezing her to the bone.

Watching for a few seconds with a complicated expression, Jiang Chao curled her fingers, shoved her hands into her pockets, lowered her head, and reduced her presence as she followed behind.

If Sheng Huaixi had gone in alone, Jiang Chao could still have waited outside.

But now that Xu Jingwen had arrived, Jiang Chao didn’t dare gamble on even a one-percent chance.

“Damn, it’s so loud.”

Jiang Chao walked into the bar, her brows knitting in discomfort as she instinctively covered her ears.

The pounding beat hammered at her ears, and the intense electronic music made her heart ache.

The bar lights flashed wildly; the mottled, shifting shadows in the corridor created a hazy, dreamlike scene, giving off an atmosphere that made people want to fall into depravity.

Why did the two of them have to meet in a bar?

Following Xu Jingwen while using the crowd to hide herself, Jiang Chao walked in some distance behind her.

As long as she followed her, finding Sheng Huaixi wouldn’t be a problem.

Jiang Chao trailed behind at an unhurried distance through the dim corridor. People in the dance pit were jumping wildly, cheers surging in dense bursts.

When she looked up, Jiang Chao’s gaze immediately locked onto the private seating area.

Found her!

Her pupils tightened; Jiang Chao didn’t rush over. Instead, she froze where she was.

She quickly turned her eyes back to Xu Jingwen, letting out a soft, confused sound in her throat.

To her surprise, Xu Jingwen had not walked toward Sheng Huaixi at all. Instead, she led the others and turned upstairs.

They weren’t together?!

Jiang Chao’s gaze returned to Sheng Huaixi. The woman was lounging lazily against the sofa, head lowered as she concentrated on fiddling with something. The hazy light cast Sheng Huaixi’s indifference across her face.

Xu Jingwen’s group had entered ostentatiously at the door, making quite a spectacle.

Sheng Huaixi was familiar with Xu Jingwen’s style; a burst of noise and crowd commotion rose to a peak around them.

The sudden uproar was quite obvious inside the bar, but Jiang Chao, standing nearby, noticed that Sheng Huaixi didn’t even glance toward the entrance once.

Now Jiang Chao was even less able to understand.

If it wasn’t Xu Jingwen, then who exactly was Sheng Huaixi hiding this bar trip from her to meet?

She had even spoken to her so coldly just to cover it up.

Jiang Chao’s curiosity about that unknown meeting partner grew stronger and stronger.

Sheng Huaixi’s breezy parting words were like a stone thrown into water; the stone sank, sending ripples through the lake of her heart.

Scanning around Sheng Huaixi, Jiang Chao spotted a hidden seat where she could see every move Sheng Huaixi made clearly.

After making sure with a quick glance at Sheng Huaixi, Jiang Chao pulled up her sweatshirt and used the oversized hood to hide her face, then lowered her head and threaded through the crowd.

Jiang Chao sat down. After looking around briefly and confirming that everyone nearby was here to have fun, she let out a quiet breath of relief.

As long as she didn’t run into someone she knew here, that was fine.

The thought had barely settled when, from the corner of her eye, a familiar figure walked past ahead.

Wait?! That’s such a coincidence?

Jiang Chao made a startled sound, her gaze wavering as she braced a hand on the sofa and turned sideways to follow the back of that figure from afar.

Caught off guard, Yuan Bai’s dazzling side profile suddenly appeared in Jiang Chao’s line of sight.

Wearing a black dress that outlined a large stretch of snow-white back, Yuan Bai was interacting with the woman beside her, the atmosphere openly intimate, a faint trace of affection flashing in her eyes.

The hazy light was decadent and blurred; the contact between the two of them looked as if it had been reflected on glass, the mood so thick that it was hard to look straight at.

Why was Yuan Bai here?

Was everyone secretly having a team-building outing here tonight?!

Annoyed, Jiang Chao licked the roof of her mouth. After thinking seriously for a moment, she picked up her phone, aimed the camera at Yuan Bai’s back, and prepared to take a photo as evidence first.

The image was just beginning to focus when Jiang Chao’s brows lifted in surprise.

In the camera, the person walking beside Yuan Bai suddenly raised a hand to wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her into her embrace. Turning back, she looked directly at Jiang Chao with cold eyes and brows.

Through the riot of neon light, she found Jiang Chao effortlessly amid the overlapping crowd and fixed her gaze on her.

Those eyes were as dark as thick ink, filled with oppressive force, as if she were treating Jiang Chao like prey; the next second, she might open her bloody mouth and swallow her whole.

Jiang Chao jolted violently. Her finger kept pressing, snapping several photos before she decisively turned around and sat properly.

But the gaze fixed on her back did not leave. It lingered as if deliberately sizing her up.

“What’s wrong? Did you see someone you know?”

A wrist rested on her shoulder. Yuan Bai subconsciously leaned against it; seeing Fang Yunxi still staring behind them, she turned her head too.

Fang Yunxi stopped her movement. A black mask covered half her face; her lowered eyes concealed her cold expression as she lazily relaxed her body.

“Not familiar with me.”

Only, very familiar with you.

“Oh... Don’t get so close to me; I already said your smell of alcohol will get me drunk.”

Yuan Bai wanted to ask more, but the woman who kept rubbing against her from time to time muddled her thoughts. Just supporting her already took a lot of effort, leaving no time for more conversation.

After the two of them left the hall, Jiang Chao finally felt the gaze lingering on her back disappear and let out a breath.

Lowering her head to look at the news page she had just searched up, Fang Yunxi’s promotional photo was still glowing on the homepage; her brows and eyes were soft, her whole body carrying a gentle, faint warmth.

She was completely different from the person Jiang Chao had just seen.

But the features were the same.

Jiang Chao rubbed her forehead in distress and sighed for Yuan Bai’s feelings.

Just from that brief encounter, Jiang Chao immediately sensed that the woman and Yuan Bai were clearly not on the same level. Yuan Bai might even be getting played while still helping count the money.

She was worried in her heart, but Jiang Chao had no time to split her attention now.

The situation over by Sheng Huaixi was clearly more urgent.

The constant attempts to strike up conversation had never stopped since Jiang Chao sat down, and now they were growing even more frequent, almost surrounding Sheng Huaixi in a circle.

Biting the nail of her thumb, her teeth sliding back and forth over it, Jiang Chao’s eyes narrowed slightly before she could stop herself.

Sheng Huaixi really was popular.

The girls gathered around Sheng Huaixi were all beauties; there were sunny and handsome ones, bright and sexy ones, curvy and fiery ones—everything you could want.

With Sheng Huaixi sitting there, it was like a spider’s den; it felt as if she could be swallowed whole at any second.

Jiang Chao held her cup and stared unblinkingly, trying to figure out which one was the person Sheng Huaixi had come to meet.

Her gaze swept over them one by one. Holding her water cup to her lips, Jiang Chao let her eyes rest on each of the girls around Sheng Huaixi for the same length of time.

Staring for too long made her eyes sting, especially under the dim lighting of the bar.

Jiang Chao rubbed her eyes. After watching for a long while, puzzlement flickered through her mind.

She’d been sitting here this long; why hadn’t Sheng Huaixi said a word to any of them?

Sheng Huaixi leaned against the sofa and lowered her eyes, fiddling with her own fingers.

She lifted her slender, pale knuckles before her eyes and squinted at them under the decadent light, as though admiring them. The white back of her hand gave off a subtle hint of eroticism at that moment.

She let the endless stream of flirtatious advances by her ear fall away as if they had nothing to do with her.

Looking at hands was more interesting than looking at people.

Sheng Huaixi swirled the wine glass in her hand with an expressionless face; the clear liquid rotated back and forth in the cup with the motion.

It reflected her indifferent eyes and lowered brows.

Her fingertip tapped the rim of the glass. The faintly rippling wine reflected Sheng Huaixi’s brooding eyes, completely without fluctuation.

The crystal-clear liquid was swallowed in gulps. A blush rose onto the woman’s cheeks, alluring and beautiful.

Sheng Huaixi narrowed her eyes slightly, enjoying the blank, dazed gazes falling on her, and licked the roof of her mouth.

The gaze of someone staring at her was blocked by the woman’s waist. A pale blur replaced the figure, and Jiang Chao snapped out of it, quickly turning her eyes away politely.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jiang Chao was surprised to find that the figure who had been standing in front of her hadn’t left. Instead, she stepped into the private booth.

The sofa dipped beside her, and the scent of tuberose drifted to her side. Jiang Chao turned her face and found that the person had actually sat down beside her.

“Miss, may I buy you a drink?”

A soft, sweet voice sounded next to Jiang Chao’s ear, acting coy and delicate.

“Hm?” The sudden approach left Jiang Chao momentarily stunned.

The girl in front of her had a baby face, and her round, narrow catlike eyes were still quite cute under the hazy light; she might have been a younger girl who hadn’t graduated yet.

“It’s just that I lost a dare. My friend asked me to bring you a drink.”

Seeing that Jiang Chao seemed reluctant, she added sincerely,

“Or I can pay for you. That works too.”

Retracting her gaze, the pleasure in her expression faded. Sheng Huaixi stood up from the private booth with lowered brows and eyes, then left.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jiang Chao kept watching Sheng Huaixi’s movements. Seeing her get up from her seat, she gave the girl an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, thank you for your kindness, but I already paid for my round. Just say you settled the bill for me. I have something to do, so I’m going first.”

Keeping her eyes tightly on Sheng Huaixi, Jiang Chao slipped through the crowd and crossed the sea of happily dancing people to follow her into a relatively emptier passage.

Dim lights flashed in the corridor, and the noisy drumbeat suddenly softened.

With the sounds around her becoming comparatively quiet, Jiang Chao was still a little unaccustomed to it.

She walked slowly farther in, looking left and right, guessing this was the corridor leading to the staff area behind the scenes.

That was why there weren’t many customers here, and the music was much quieter than on the dance floor outside.

Strange. She had clearly seen Sheng Huaixi walk in here, so why couldn’t she see her now?

Frowning, Jiang Chao slowly rounded a corner.

Just as her line of sight was about to open up, a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist hard.

“Who is it?!”

Jiang Chao cried out. Her shoulder turned, and her steps went weak as she fell into a fragrant embrace. The hood she had taken off was swiftly pulled back over her head by someone.

“Shh, don’t talk.”

A gentle, hoarse voice sounded by her ear; a fingertip brushed lightly over her lips and pressed down.

Jiang Chao immediately knew who the person in front of her was, and she also understood that her tailing had probably been discovered by Sheng Huaixi long ago.

Had she deliberately lured her here?

Chaotic footsteps moved back and forth behind Jiang Chao. Her ears twitched, and she heard Sheng Huaixi’s name being mentioned frequently in the voices around them; it seemed they were specifically here looking for her.

Jiang Chao didn’t dare make a single move, afraid they’d discover that she and Sheng Huaixi were here together.

Sheng Huaixi’s arm tightened around her waist; the restraining force on her arm was extremely firm, faintly carrying a trace of anger.

Jiang Chao stared blankly at the face in front of her, so close that their lips could have met at any moment; her heartbeat pounded wildly without her noticing, and her palms clenched.

Too close.

The hood on her sweatshirt was very large. Sheng Huaixi yanked it up in one motion; with the already dim lighting in this place, Jiang Chao’s vision was now almost completely black, and she could barely see anything at all.

Her breathing tightening, Jiang Chao was just about to speak when Sheng Huaixi wrapped an arm around the back of her neck and pressed lightly in warning.

The two of them were tucked under the same hood, bodies pressed so tightly together that even their breathing tangled intimately; the atmosphere was ambiguous.

Jiang Chao froze in place, staring blankly at Sheng Huaixi’s face.

So close.

So beautiful.

“Have you been drinking?” Sheng Huaixi lowered her voice and spoke hoarsely.

Jiang Chao was stunned for a moment. Just as she was about to answer, she remembered Sheng Huaixi’s earlier reminder and shook her head to indicate no.

“Is that so?” came a faint question.

Her voice was cool, with a subtle edge of force. She lifted her eyelids slightly and looked at Jiang Chao; the air around her was heavy.

For some reason, Jiang Chao had the absurd feeling that she was the one who had secretly slipped out and been caught and questioned by Sheng Huaixi.

But this was obviously not a good place to argue.

Jiang Chao could only shake her head again, using body language to express her certainty.

In the dim light, Sheng Huaixi’s eyes narrowed slightly; a dark glint drifted across the depths of her pupils.

Jiang Chao wasn’t unfamiliar with her well-defined hands, but in Sheng Huaixi’s grasp, she still had no power to resist.

Helpless, Jiang Chao half-narrowed her eyes and let Sheng Huaixi pinch up her face to study her.

“Jiang Chao, don’t lie to me.”

Sheng Huaixi narrowed her eyes, her gaze sliding subtly over Jiang Chao’s lips, which were faintly pursed and covered with a light sheen of moisture. Her fingertips moved slightly.

The dim light fell across Jiang Chao’s face. Her delicate, soft features were now hidden in the dark, adding a touch of allure.

The woman’s warm fingertips brushed lightly against her ear again and again; her low, slightly hoarse voice was especially soft.

Her breath brushed Jiang Chao’s ear as she spoke from time to time, and a thin flush colored Jiang Chao’s cheeks. She held her breath and didn’t dare move.

Jiang Chao had known Sheng Huaixi’s figure was excellent from day one.

But now that she was being held so tightly in her arms, she could feel it even more clearly; that slender waist could be fully encircled by just one of her hands.

The two of them were pressed together tightly. At Sheng Huaixi’s words, Jiang Chao bit her lip with a bit of grievance.

“I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t drink.”

A little moisture clung to the corner of her mouth, and it almost seemed as though she could still smell another girl’s fragrance. Sheng Huaixi lowered her eyes, suppressing the darkness in them, and slowly wiped the liquid from the corner of her lips.

Damn it.

Sheng Huaixi’s eyes rippled with disgust—for herself.

She lowered her head, and Jiang Chao couldn’t see the expression on her face, but Sheng Huaixi’s questioning just now had stirred Jiang Chao’s emotions, and she asked back,

“Then why did you have to hide it from me when you came to the bar?”

“Do you care?”

In the dim light, Jiang Chao could still clearly see the brightness in Sheng Huaixi’s eyes the instant she heard that, as if she were very happy that Jiang Chao cared about this.

Sheng Huaixi’s eyes stayed fixed on her. Jiang Chao’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment; her lashes trembled as she avoided Sheng Huaixi’s gaze, her ears turning bright red.

“Answer me first.”

“A troublesome, persistent pursuer; we have a bit of a business arrangement, and I’m under someone else’s control, so I had no choice but to come.”

Question and answer; Sheng Huaixi replied with remarkable obedience. Jiang Chao could understand the faint concern hidden under her words.

Because of the business arrangement, refusing might have caused conflict. If Sheng Huaixi had been on her own, she wouldn’t have feared anything.

But once Jiang Chao was added to the equation, Sheng Huaixi didn’t want Jiang Chao to offend anyone because of her. She would rather handle it herself.

Just like last time when Sheng Huaixi had stood up for her in front of Xu Jingwen.

Sheng Huaixi was a madwoman who would go crazy, but she was also a madwoman who cared about Jiang Chao.

Jiang Chao had always known that.

Moisture flickered at the bottom of her eyes; Jiang Chao bit her lip in conflict before taking a deep breath and asking the question she cared about most.

“Then why did you say it had nothing to do with me just now?”

Her voice trembled lightly. Jiang Chao still remembered exactly how she had felt when she heard those words.

Shock, suspicion, confusion, hurt... somewhere without her realizing it, she had already cared a great deal about Sheng Huaixi’s words.

Once water has passed, it leaves a trace; that cold back had driven a sharp thorn into Jiang Chao’s heart, and it couldn’t be pulled out without bleeding.

“Because I was afraid you’d worry and insist on coming with me.” Sheng Huaixi nodded her chin and lightly tapped Jiang Chao’s collarbone, her movement gentle. “Wasn’t that exactly why you secretly followed me here?”

The facts didn’t stand up to argument. Jiang Chao was left speechless.

Although she had meant well, she had indeed followed Sheng Huaixi.

An arm looped around her neck and held her tight. Sheng Huaixi spoke softly about other things, and as she opened her mouth, Jiang Chao could feel a rush of heat coming at her.

Perhaps because she had been drinking, Sheng Huaixi’s body was burning with a feverish temperature even through her clothes.

The cold alcohol slid down her throat into her stomach, her blood vessels dilated, and it helped fuel the blaze.

Where their skin touched, the high temperature seemed ready to burn a mark into that patch of flesh.

Jiang Chao shifted a little uncomfortably.

Too hot.

Her wrist resting at Sheng Huaixi’s waist loosened, her palm opening as her fingers pointed downward. Jiang Chao hoped to cool herself this way.

But then—

Soft, full thigh flesh was tightly wrapped by the thin fabric of stockings. Jiang Chao’s lowered hand suddenly touched it, and her mind went completely blank; she didn’t hear a word of what Sheng Huaixi was saying by her ear.

Her throat bobbed. Jiang Chao asked shakily,

“Sheng Huaixi.”

Her hand did not move. Her knuckles carefully touched Sheng Huaixi’s thigh; the rough, fleeting sensation vanished the moment it came, as if she feared that if she stayed a second longer, the soft flesh of her thigh would sink inward.

So lewd...

A flush flew onto Jiang Chao’s face. Her tongue unconsciously licked over her lips.

The sensation under her hand made Jiang Chao too afraid to move. She only clearly heard Sheng Huaixi’s low laugh sounding by her ear.

Sheng Huaixi was doing it on purpose, deliberately teasing her.

But Jiang Chao didn’t have the slightest desire to resist, and she couldn’t resist Sheng Huaixi’s blatant temptation either.

She could only dodge.

“So now that you’re done with your business, are you going home?”

Trying to sound calm, Jiang Chao turned around and pointed toward the noise outside with her fingertips, testing her. “Or, since we’re already here, do you want to stay and play a little longer?”

“Too noisy; it’s irritating to listen to. Let’s go home.” Sheng Huaixi leaned lazily against Jiang Chao and answered softly.

Jiang Chao nodded and led her out of the bar without hesitation.

But as soon as the two of them stepped out, the girl standing at the entrance lit up and called out “Miss!” as she ran straight toward Jiang Chao.

Afraid she wouldn’t notice, she even waved vigorously.

Jiang Chao froze, took Sheng Huaixi’s wrist, and stood where she was waiting for her to come over, sneaking a guilty glance at the person beside her.

“Miss, I was waiting at the entrance; thank you just now for helping me with my dare.”

The girl smiled brightly, her grin soft and fluffy, like a cute little bun standing in front of the two of them.

Jiang Chao touched her cheek. Seeing that the girl had deliberately waited for her at the door, she didn’t know what to do and said softly, “I didn’t really help you with anything. You don’t need to thank me.”

The girl shook her head and thanked her firmly again before turning and running off.

Watching the girl’s retreating back, Jiang Chao lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers. Sheng Huaixi spoke in a low voice.

“Jiang Chao, your ability to attract bees and butterflies is really impressive.”

Jiang Chao’s gaze drifted about, and she didn’t dare look Sheng Huaixi in the eye. For some reason, under Sheng Huaixi’s tone at this moment—

She had the absurd feeling that she was being caught in an affair.

“Tell me, isn’t that right? Hmm?”