Chapter 38

“You...” How could you be here?

Before Jiang Chao could finish, a soft hand caught her wrist as it hung at her side. A chill shot up her fingertips, carrying the lingering cold of the outdoors; she instinctively tried to pull away.

Her palm was opened, her fingers clasped even tighter, the icy cold seeping through her skin.

It was clearly a grip that left no room for refusal.

Jiang Chao lowered her eyes. Sheng Huaixi’s snow-white shoulder came into view first; perhaps because she had been swept by the biting wind outside, the pale skin there had already taken on a faint flush of red.

Sheng Huaixi had only stepped closer, yet the cold around her surged toward Jiang Chao in an overwhelming wave. Jiang Chao’s gaze flickered once or twice, then she let her body relax and allowed Sheng Huaixi to hold her wrist.

“Sheng Huaixi?” Bai Xiangshu’s voice rose slightly, carrying a thread of surprise.

Jiang Chao glanced between them. Her eyes narrowed a little before settling on Sheng Huaixi’s cool, indifferent profile. Even after Bai Xiangshu called her name, Sheng Huaixi didn’t react at all.

Only the palm Jiang Chao’s wrist was lightly pinched in was faithfully betraying its owner’s true feelings.

Sheng Huaixi gave a slight nod and looked at Bai Xiangshu with a cold, expressionless face. Her voice was icy. “Long time no see.”

They knew each other? Jiang Chao looked between them, a little surprised, then her gaze landed again on Sheng Huaixi’s calm profile. Her raven-black lashes trembled slowly, disturbing the carefully applied makeup from tonight.

“I thought you wouldn’t show up at events like this again.”

Bai Xiangshu’s gaze wavered slightly. The pearl earrings at her ears caught the light brilliantly, lending a touch of brightness to her flawless, gentle face as she stared straight at Sheng Huaixi.

Her fingertips shifted lightly. Jiang Chao narrowed her eyes, looking at the smile on Bai Xiangshu’s face, a trace of thought flashing in the depths of her gaze.

What did that mean?

Sheng Huaixi returned a cool look. The corner of her mouth lifted faintly, a hint of mockery passing over her face. “If people like you can still walk out smiling, why can’t I?”

Those two lines alone were enough to make the tension between them feel like it had spread through the air.

Jiang Chao said nothing, but she grew warier of Bai Xiangshu, her eyes silently sweeping over Bai Xiangshu’s face.

Bai Xiangshu’s gaze dropped slightly. The two intertwined wrists were still intimate, her pupils dark and deep; her brows and eyes curved almost imperceptibly.

“Are you Miss Jiang’s girlfriend?”

“Yes. Finished being surprised?”

A mocking laugh reached Jiang Chao’s ears, cold and sharp. She heard Sheng Huaixi’s flat reply, the impatience in it thick and unmistakable.

It was obvious Sheng Huaixi knew Bai Xiangshu from before, and that something unpleasant had happened between them. Otherwise, Sheng Huaixi would never treat someone she knew this way.

After hearing Sheng Huaixi’s words, Bai Xiangshu pressed her lips together and shook her head lightly, her smile gentle as she turned her tender gaze toward Jiang Chao.

“I’m sorry, Miss Jiang. I was abrupt just now.”

Jiang Chao shook her head. “No, it’s fine.”

Bai Xiangshu’s smile deepened. The look she gave Jiang Chao grew even softer; her long lashes fluttered with a hint of pity as she said gently, “You’ll have a hard time from now on, Sheng—”

“Bai Xiangshu.” Sheng Huaixi cut her off, her voice low and carrying a warning.

Her hand suddenly tightened. Jiang Chao hissed in pain, her palm aching as she frowned in displeasure and turned to glare at Sheng Huaixi.

Sheng Huaixi’s expression remained perfectly normal, showing nothing unusual.

Poor Jiang Chao’s trapped hand was being treated like some sort of venting toy by Sheng Huaixi, squeezed and toyed with.

Jiang Chao was just about to tell Sheng Huaixi to ease up when her mother spoke from the other side to remind her, “Chaochao. We need to go up.”

Tonight was Grandma’s birthday banquet; before the formal festivities began, they had to go up to pay their respects. That was also why Jiang Chao had no choice but to attend.

But—

Jiang Chao gave Bai Xiangshu a subtle glance. The gentleness on Bai Xiangshu’s face had never changed; even after being treated so badly by Sheng Huaixi, she was still the same.

Gentle, familiar, yet somehow still looking exactly like this even after being angered, like a mannequin.

Jiang Chao lightly scratched Sheng Huaixi’s palm as a reminder, her brows tightening slightly as she looked at Sheng Huaixi, concern in her eyes. “You’re okay, right?”

That slight itch in her palm seemed to slip into Sheng Huaixi’s heart. Her lashes trembled. She clenched her fingers hard into her own palm, ignored Bai Xiangshu’s mocking look, and swallowed the agitation and irritability in her chest with difficulty before tilting her head and giving a light laugh.

“You go find Auntie first. I’ll come find you later.”

In front of the elders, she put on a perfect show of thoughtfulness.

At that, Jiang Chao’s expression darkened briefly, then quickly returned to normal. She gave no sign of the emotions stirring inside her.

“Fine. Then you talk to her yourself.”

Jiang Chao pulled her wrist free without hesitation, smiling brightly as she turned and left without lingering for even a second.

After turning her back on the two of them and walking a few steps, Jiang Chao heard the faint sound of conversation and footsteps behind her. The corners of her mouth, which had been lifted, slowly flattened; her gaze grew deeper.

Her long lashes lowered. Jiang Chao blinked slowly, thinking, and the scene from just now replayed frame by frame in her mind.

After Sheng Huaixi appeared, Bai Xiangshu’s gaze, out of politeness, still often lingered on Jiang Chao; but whenever it slipped away unconsciously, it always seemed to land on Sheng Huaixi instead.

Sheng Huaixi’s attitude toward her was also strange. Negative, without a doubt, but there were things she didn’t want Jiang Chao to know.

That interruption just now was proof of that.

Sheng Huaixi was deliberately hiding something from her.

That left a sour feeling in Jiang Chao’s heart, as though a ball of cotton had been stuffed into her chest; soft and fluffy, yet blocking her heartbeat tightly.

Jiang Chao raised a hand to smooth the hair at her forehead, using the motion to lower her head and hide the irritation in her eyes.

She still didn’t know why Sheng Huaixi had suddenly shown up at the banquet tonight. Her blind date’s possible interest in Sheng Huaixi, and the fact that the two of them seemed to have shared something in the past, had also suddenly resurfaced...

Jiang Chao’s mood was terrible.

She climbed the winding double staircase step by step. The strings and winds in her ears gradually slowed; the soothing melody reached Jiang Chao’s ears and made her already stifled mood even heavier.

Her gaze subconsciously swept below. Jiang Chao lifted the hem of her dress, trying to find Sheng Huaixi and Bai Xiangshu, but the brightly lit, bustling hall was already empty of them both.

How eager.

Jiang Chao turned her eyes back without hesitation; her cheeks were faintly tense as she followed Jiang’s mother closely, clutching her skirt so hard that it wrinkled badly.

It was she who had been reading too much into it.

Since Sheng Huaixi could still take part in investments, what was so strange about her coming to a banquet?

*Click.* The door shut.

The winter wind mercilessly scraped across the skin; like a blade, it cut over flesh and bone, bringing an endless chill.

Two opposing figures were cast as long shadows on the ground by the dim light.

“You didn’t tell her about that matter, did you?”

Bai Xiangshu’s voice was torn apart by the wind after only a few breaths; by the time it reached Sheng Huaixi’s ears, it had become a soft, almost caring sound.

Sheng Huaixi stared at her for a long moment. The instant Bai Xiangshu spoke, disgust flashed across her brow without any attempt to hide it. She turned away, unwilling to linger on that face for even another second.

Her cool, exquisite profile was laid bare before Bai Xiangshu. Bai Xiangshu didn’t mind; she merely moved the tip of her shoe forward a little.

“Don’t move.” Sheng Huaixi said coldly, her voice sharp with ice.

Bai Xiangshu’s lifted toe stopped in midair. Her eyes swept over Sheng Huaixi’s face; seeing those icy eyes, she slowly lowered her foot again.

With a shrug, Bai Xiangshu kept the same attitude toward her, only narrowing her eyes; her smile never reached their depths. “I won’t move. But you—why are you still falling for someone?”

“It’s only been a few years, and your feelings have vanished so quickly.”

Her words were soft, but as each syllable fell slowly, the gentle smile on Bai Xiangshu’s face also faded. Her arched brows lifted slightly; the dim light fell across her features, leaving them cold and expressionless.

Her fingertips idly hooked the chain by her ear. The cold gleam reflected in Sheng Huaixi’s gloomy eyes, and Bai Xiangshu’s mouth curved with a sigh, sincerely regretful.

“Miss Jiang is really quite pitiful.”

“Bai Xiangshu.” Sheng Huaixi suddenly spoke. Her profile was still turned toward Bai Xiangshu as her eyes narrowed, a dark chill seeping from her words and spreading around her. Her voice was cold and warning.

“If you say that in front of Jiang Chao, I don’t mind making you truly pitiful.”

Sheng Huaixi’s words were wrapped in frost, the chill slamming against Bai Xiangshu’s exposed skin and biting deep into flesh. The freezing pressure she gave off made Bai Xiangshu understand—

she wasn’t joking.

But why?!

The calm on Bai Xiangshu’s face shattered at once. Her gentle features burned with jealousy as she strode forward several steps, pressing her body right up against Sheng Huaixi, her voice breaking with anger.

“Pitiful? I’m not enough already?! Look at me—living in this perfectly proper, half-dead state! Being watched twenty-four hours a day, and that still isn’t enough?! What right do you have to say that when you’re living a free life!”

Sheng Huaixi lifted her wrist to block in front of herself, her brows rising in annoyance.

The scent belonging to Bai Xiangshu rushed toward her because of the close distance, that disgusting sandalwood clinging to the air and surging at her all at once.

Sheng Huaixi held her breath and pointed behind Bai Xiangshu. “You stink. Stay away from me.”

She didn’t want that disgusting smell on herself, and especially didn’t want to bring such filth to Jiang Chao.

Sheng Huaixi’s disgust was unmistakable in both her words and expression; Bai Xiangshu saw it clearly, and the boiling anger in her chest burned even more fiercely.

Taking another step forward, Bai Xiangshu’s expression twisted. Trembling with rage, she stared straight at Sheng Huaixi’s face, fire practically shooting from her eyes as she no longer bothered to hide her words.

“Heh, once that Miss Jiang finds out how dirty you are...”

A slap rang out without warning in the night, sharp and decisive, echoing through the dark.

Bai Xiangshu’s face was knocked to the side. The words she’d been saying froze there, the mockery on her face collapsing as she touched the side of her cheek in disbelief.

“Shut up.”

Her voice was low. Sheng Huaixi’s eyes and brows were stained with darkness; her whole presence turned sharp, the low pressure around her impossible to ignore as it rolled out coldly with the winter wind.

Bai Xiangshu’s words were like a spark, igniting memories of the past. A mass of dark recollections mixed with the night and surged up, setting fire to the anger Sheng Huaixi had been holding back all evening. The blaze roared higher.

Sheng Huaixi was not someone who could endure things, and Bai Xiangshu was especially not on the list of people she was willing to tolerate.

How dare Bai Xiangshu bring up Jiang Chao in front of her?

Her dark eyes fixed heavily on Bai Xiangshu. Sheng Huaixi’s palm had gone numb from the impact, but she didn’t care at all. She stepped forward, ready to strike again when her ear twitched.

Sheng Huaixi drew back her wrist, let out the breath trapped in her chest, and held the corner of her mouth for a long moment. Looking at the anger on Bai Xiangshu’s face, she slowly let a smile spread.

Under the moonlight, her cool eyes and brows softened into a trace of intoxicating allure.

Bai Xiangshu froze, her expression turning strange. Her hand moved slightly, then withdrew again in confusion as she stared in shock at the smile on Sheng Huaixi’s face.

“She looks down on me. I know.” Meeting Bai Xiangshu’s gaze, Sheng Huaixi added slowly, “But it doesn’t matter.”

“You don’t even have someone who’ll stay by your side despite looking down on you. You’re just an optional existence.”

Sheng Huaixi’s words trampled hard on Bai Xiangshu’s sore spot.

The emotions she had been suppressing were instantly stirred back into anger. Bai Xiangshu stomped hard against the ground, the sharp click of her heel striking out hollowly!

“Miss Bai!” Jiang Chao could no longer listen. She hurriedly ran over from the shadows.

Her fluttering skirt looked like a butterfly with its wings spread, quietly settling in front of Sheng Huaixi.

“Are you worried I’ll be bullied, or are you worried about your blind date?”

Just as Jiang Chao was about to speak, the low voice behind her suddenly brushed against her ear and bit out the words.

The unmistakable jealousy in that tone wrapped insistently around her lower back.

Jiang Chao hadn’t expected Sheng Huaixi to still be thinking about that.

Sheng Huaixi repeated the question again without any concern.

Jiang Chao had a headache. A trace of helplessness drifted through her heart—

Do you really have to fight over this right now? It’s just a blind date, and a hypocritical one at that.

She had to show off her status in front of some irrelevant outsider.

What a homewrecker move.

Jiang Chao quietly reached behind her back and caught Sheng Huaixi’s fingertips, stopping her from acting so recklessly.

Her hand was slapped away without hesitation.