Chapter 41
The night was still. Inside the room, the lights glowed with a soft, luxurious brightness; the leather sofa on one side gleamed smooth and polished, and the whole interior had fallen silent.
Outside, the rain came down in a roar. It had never let up since they got home, drumming against the windowsill in a steady patter that worked its way under the skin.
Jiang Chao had changed into her pajamas long ago and settled in. A few strands of hair had curled against her neck, and some had stuck there, but their owner had no mind to smooth them away.
Three hours had passed since that unpleasant conversation.
The clock had crept past ten. Aside from the wind and rain raging outside, Jiang Chao could hear only her own breathing.
Her whole heart and mind were fixed on the person who had vanished.
The phone resting beside the sofa stayed dark, without the slightest movement.
Jiang Chao opened it again and again; WeChat, texts, calls... everything was empty, so empty that not even a spam message had the nerve to interrupt her.
Before leaving, she had told Sheng Huaixi to send her a message once she got home. Yet time had dragged on to now; waiting alone had been enough to take her to the airport road and back.
Sheng Huaixi was clearly doing this on purpose, refusing to reply to her message.
“.......”
Fine. She had said that on her own; Sheng Huaixi hadn’t agreed to it.
Jiang Chao covered her face, rubbing at her soft cheeks over and over. A string of aimless, muffled sounds squeezed out of her throat and echoed through the room.
Her delicate brows were twisted into a knot of irritation. What should have been a peaceful mood before sleep had turned into a complete mess.
Her thoughts were like a ball of yarn knotted at random; black, gray, white, every kind of thread had tangled together into a complicated knot of emotions.
Jiang Chao tried to find reason and composure in it, but they had long since been buried under that pile of ugly feelings.
And it was even worse now, with no message from Sheng Huaixi.
“You kept telling me to have the driver take you home...” Jiang Chao muttered through the hand covering her mouth. Through the gaps between her fingers, the emotions in her lowered lashes and eyes were dark and unreadable.
She propped her chin on her hand and turned to look toward the windowsill. The mist-blue curtain blocked part of the darkness, but the thunderous rain still pounded heavily against her heart.
“You didn’t even put your coat on.” Jiang Chao puffed out her cheeks, pouting. “I even brought mine on purpose.”
“You just ignored my kindness.”
As she spoke, her mouth drooped again.
That said, if she put herself in Sheng Huaixi’s position and heard those words, she would probably choose to straighten her back and leave alone too.
And Sheng Huaixi... how could she possibly have accepted Jiang Chao’s suggestion to let the driver take her home in that situation?
Naturally, she also couldn’t have accepted the coat Jiang Chao handed her afterward.
“So stubborn, stubborn, stubborn! Why can’t you just tell me you really are hiding something from me? If you’d just said you had your reasons, do you think I’d have forced you to tell me or something? Aaaaaah...”
Jiang Chao tilted over and collapsed onto the sofa. She grabbed a soft pillow and buried her face in it. Her irritated wail drifted out of the cushion and lingered in the room for a long time.
Her cry echoed for a while, and then the damp sound of the rain outside rang out intermittently, weaving together into a symphony that seemed fused into the room.
Her throat went hoarse, and Jiang Chao stopped. She lifted a pair of shimmering, watery eyes from the pillow, and a flash of frustration crossed her gaze.
The rain washed over the glass in a torrent. The violent sound never stopped, rattling the nerves into frantic little jumps. In the black of night, the thin mist of rain looked like a dense spiderweb, trapping every thought inside.
As the rainy night stirred in her, late-arriving regret also tugged at her.
Sheng Huaixi’s lonely figure as she left without saying a word kept lingering in her mind.
Her long black lashes lowered over her eyelids, casting a dim shadow. Those eyes that always looked straight at her had gone dazed and heavy-lidded, and that clean, cold face had fallen silent.
After Jiang Chao said that, Sheng Huaixi didn’t say another word. She only lowered her eyes quietly.
The searing, burning gaze had been doused with a basin of cold water.
Her face fell into shadow; she no longer looked at Jiang Chao, no longer argued. That complete silence made Jiang Chao’s heart tremble, and she turned her face away, afraid to look any longer.
“It was clearly you who hid things from me first.”
Thinking of what had just happened, Jiang Chao forced out a muffled complaint. When her eyes swept across the black phone again, she vented her frustration with a light punch to the sofa.
Annoying!
If it had been usual, Jiang Chao wouldn’t have wanted to say something like that either. But Sheng Huaixi’s deliberate concealment was like a little hammer, pounding away in her head over and over again.
Especially in front of Bai Xiangshu, Sheng Huaixi had even rejected her implied kindness and chosen to send Jiang Chao away, chatting with Bai Xiangshu alone.
Why did she have to send Jiang Chao away at a time like that!
Jiang Chao didn’t believe Sheng Huaixi hadn’t noticed Bai Xiangshu’s eyes, which kept drifting to her now and then; those eyes were full of love and hate intertwined, and though there was sometimes a flash of jealousy Jiang Chao couldn’t understand, the final point of focus was always Sheng Huaixi.
In the end, Sheng Huaixi had even gotten inexplicably jealous over Bai Xiangshu calling herself a blind date.
Jiang Chao was dying of injustice.
Still, once she calmed down, Jiang Chao also regretted the way she had spoken to Sheng Huaixi.
Saying she was hiding things... who didn’t have things they hid?
If Sheng Huaixi was hiding something, why did she have to tell Jiang Chao?
Who were you to her? Why were you snooping into other people’s past like that? What right did you have to demand that she be completely honest with you...
Jiang Chao raised a hand and tapped her own head, asking herself the same questions over and over, then overturning her own explanations over and over, wrestling with herself endlessly.
“Chaociao, what are you doing? Why isn’t the door closed?”
Jiang’s mother pushed the door open and immediately saw her daughter sprawled on the sofa, muttering over and over about what right she had, her hair in disarray, her toes tapping anxiously against the couch.
“What are you saying? What right?” Jiang’s mother frowned in confusion and walked over, sitting down beside her.
Jiang Chao turned and saw her mother enter. She hurriedly sat up, straightened her messy pajamas, and shook her head. “Nothing. I’m just talking nonsense.”
Talking nonsense?
Jiang’s mother’s gaze swept over her daughter’s face. The redness from her earlier rubbing still lingered on her chin and cheeks, and strands of hair had been left sticking to her neck without being tidied.
It was already long past bedtime, and yet she was still sitting on the sofa, not even scrolling on her phone, muttering things no one could understand.
“You, always trying to brush your mother off.” Jiang’s mother sighed helplessly, her brows lightly furrowing as she reached out and flicked Jiang Chao’s forehead.
Jiang Chao yelped and covered her forehead, scooting back. She muttered a few half-formed complaints like “What the heck,” then glanced at the black screen of her phone and decided to pick it up and put it on the table after all.
Jiang’s mother glanced at the screen and, after a moment’s thought, looked up and asked, “Are you waiting for someone’s message?”
“No!” Jiang Chao denied it without hesitation.
The moment the denial left her mouth, she regretted it.
She had answered too quickly; that would only make her mother more suspicious.
Seeing the sudden brightness in Jiang’s mother’s eyes, Jiang Chao decisively hugged a pillow and turned away, curling up on the sofa and staring fixedly toward the doorway, avoiding her mother’s eager gaze.
“No? That would be strange indeed.”
Jiang’s mother didn’t believe her daughter’s attempt to bluff her. She raised her fingers and counted off Jiang Chao’s strange behavior from tonight one by one.
“You left after seeing Grandma and said you were going to find someone, then dumped me and walked off. When you came back, your face looked like you’d just been cheated on. When someone talked to you, you wore such a long face. On the way back, you didn’t even laugh at any of my jokes..."
One by one, Jiang’s mother listed all of Jiang Chao’s odd behavior tonight.
Jiang Chao’s ears twitched, and her fingertips pressed and picked at each other. When she heard her mother’s subtle description in the middle, her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
By the time Jiang’s mother finished, Jiang Chao also had to admit, with some helplessness, that in her mother’s eyes she had been acting oddly from the moment Sheng Huaixi showed up until they left and got home.
Facing her mother’s sparkling gaze, Jiang Chao carefully recalled what she had said. In the end, she could only let her shoulders sag and say in a low voice, “You really do notice everything.”
“Of course. You’re my daughter. How could I not know when something’s off with you?”
Jiang’s mother lifted her hair and proudly shook the jade bracelet on her wrist, its surface smooth and bright.
After saying that, she looked at the curve of Jiang Chao’s brows and eyes, instantly remembering the point of concern from before. Her eyes widened, and she patted Jiang Chao’s shoulder. “Always trying to fool me.”
“Alright, no running off. Tell me who made you act so strange tonight.”
Jiang Chao’s shoulders shrank. Seeing that changing the subject had failed, she dejectedly hugged the cushion and leaned back against the sofa, her expression twisted with embarrassment. Even the words she spoke came out crooked, like a screw turned into a spiral.
“No one. There’s nobody. It was just..."
“Just what?” Jiang’s mother asked smoothly, looking at Jiang Chao with curious attention, leaning in patiently, waiting for the awkwardness in her daughter’s heart to fade.
Jiang Chao sighed. “I just said the wrong thing.”
Jiang’s mother let out a long “oh” and finally understood the reason her daughter had been so off tonight when she saw the undisguised regret on her face.
But still, “You still haven’t told me who the other person is.”
Jiang’s mother felt she hadn’t asked the wrong question. If she didn’t know who it was, how was she supposed to comfort her? She had chatted with so many young people in her circles lately; maybe it was one of them.
But when she finished speaking, Jiang’s mother received her daughter’s soft huff with an innocent expression. After huffing, Jiang Chao turned her head and refused to pay attention to her.
Jiang’s mother put away her teasing. Her expression softened as she patted Jiang Chao’s arm and rubbed it gently in her palm. After a moment’s thought, she asked, “Did you say something really hurtful? Or something too much about your relationship?”
Mm... Jiang Chao pressed her lips together and thought. Her gaze drifted without meaning to, and her expression immediately wilted. The voice she squeezed out was as thin as a mosquito’s buzz. “Maybe... both.”
“???”
Jiang’s mother looked at her daughter suspiciously. Her face hadn’t changed, and that little habit of sneaking glances after doing something wrong hadn’t changed either. Yes, definitely her daughter. “You said it first?”
“Could she have forced me to say it...?” Jiang Chao answered in a small voice.
Turning her head, Jiang Chao saw Jiang’s mother’s brow crease slightly, with a very obvious look of disappointment in her daughter’s lack of backbone.
Jiang Chao’s shoulders dropped. Her brows and eyes lowered with the rain; beneath the brilliant, dazzling lights, her lovely face had lost its smile.
Like fox-tail grass drenched by rain, she leaned to one side with a damp, drooping air, her long lashes pitifully lowered.
Seeing her like that, Jiang’s mother sighed from the heart. This was her daughter; what else could she do?
“Then you’ve been sitting here sighing and sulking because, after you said the wrong thing, she didn’t take your coat and left right away, and even now she still hasn’t replied to a single message?”
Jiang Chao’s eyes suddenly widened, and she looked at Jiang’s mother in amazement. “Mom, how did you know?!”
Every word Jiang’s mother said was exactly right.
If Jiang Chao weren’t sure she had never told her mother anything about the two of them, she would have suspected she’d mentioned it during some chat before.
“I’m your mother. How could I not know?” Jiang’s mother’s gaze passed over her expression and, seeing the shock on her face, added, “I saw you holding a coat at the hotel.”
Jiang Chao nodded in realization, the body that had tensed from shock finally relaxing.
Since her mother had already guessed most of it, Jiang Chao stopped hiding it and simply told her, bit by bit, the thing that was troubling her now.
“She suddenly came to the banquet tonight; I had no idea beforehand. And just my luck, when she came in, I was chatting with Bai Xiangshu on the side, and it just so happened that Bai Xiangshu asked me whether I had a girlfriend.”
Jiang’s mother blurted out, “That does sound a bit melodramatic.”
“It’s just bad luck on my part!” Jiang Chao propped her face in her hand, a trace of gloom flashing in her eyes. “I don’t even know if she’s got a monitor installed on me. Every time, she catches me red-handed at moments like that.”
Whenever she was with Sheng Huaixi, it was as if she had inherited her peach-blossom luck too. People always came up to flirt with her right in front of Sheng Huaixi.
It had gotten to the point that Jiang Chao almost suspected the story trope about having a perverted admirer had the wrong name; it should have been hers.
“Then she’s rather petty. Every time she runs into this kind of thing, her face looks awful. Maybe because she’s pretty clingy with me.”
Jiang’s mother looked carefully at the trouble on Jiang Chao’s face and pointed out, “That’s because she likes you and got jealous.”
“No, no, she doesn’t like me, and I wouldn’t like her either.”
Jiang Chao’s fingers tightened. Before her heartbeat could even jump in response, she shook her head quickly and answered with certainty, her expression absolutely unwavering, as though she were being steadfast to the end.
At the end of the sentence, Jiang Chao lowered her eyes. Her thick black lashes swept over her lids in a hurry, casting a quivering shadow.
Glancing sideways at Jiang’s mother, Jiang Chao saw that she still wanted to keep talking about it. She pinched her palm and decisively changed the subject.
“After that, we separated from Bai Xiangshu. She knows Bai Xiangshu, and I could clearly feel she was deliberately hiding something from me while talking to her, so I just asked her directly.”
Seeing her eyes dim as she mentioned it, Jiang’s mother keenly pointed out, “Her answer didn’t satisfy you, so you said something over the line to her.”
Curling up, Jiang Chao buried her face in the soft pillow and made a muffled sound of agreement. The hot breath she exhaled brushed over the fabric’s pattern and bounced back onto her cheeks, making them heat up at once.
“This has nothing to do with you, Sheng Huaixi.
“Whether it’s blind dates or chatting, I’m doing all of this openly. I haven’t hidden anything from you.”
One cold sentence after another left her mouth.
The hand Sheng Huaixi had held out in midair trembled and slowly withdrew with each line. Her fishtail gown dragged dully across the floor, and her expression darkened.
She didn’t struggle at all; she just let Jiang Chao speak to her like that, sentence after sentence.
When she was usually so quick-witted...
The hot flush of her breath scorched her mind; Jiang Chao’s thoughts were knotted into a mess.
“Did you apologize?”
“What?” The sound in her ear pulled Jiang Chao back. She looked up, and there was still a bit of shimmering moisture lingering in her eyes; a few patterns had been pressed onto her cheeks, making her look dazed and foolish.
Jiang’s mother let out another soft sigh and repeated, “The one you’re waiting to hear from now. Since you think you were in the wrong, did you apologize to her?”
Silently, Jiang Chao looked away. Silently, she avoided her mother’s sharp gaze. Curling into a tiny ball, she tucked herself into the corner of the sofa and played dead, her eyes tightly shut.
It was too embarrassing!
Just three hours ago, she had still been acting all tough in the hotel, saying, “It has nothing to do with you.” And now she was already leaning in to ask why you still weren’t home, why you weren’t talking to me...
Jiang Chao really couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“You...” Jiang’s mother rubbed her forehead. Looking at Jiang Chao, still curled away from her, she said sharply, “You’ve been sitting here waiting for her message for so long, thinking this and that. You clearly know you were wrong, but you’re too embarrassed to send her a text.”
Jiang Chao’s curled body suddenly stiffened. She turned around slowly and gave Jiang’s mother a resentful look. “Mommy.”
Though she knew very well that this would be the result, couldn’t her mother at least say something false but gentle?
For example—
“She’s definitely going to contact you.”
Even though Jiang Chao didn’t believe that in the least.
Jiang’s mother patted the sofa as she stood up. Before leaving, she turned back and gave one last reminder.
“Don’t be a coward, Chaociao.”
Coward...
The bedroom door shut behind Jiang’s mother. Jiang Chao sighed, slowly got up from the sofa, picked up her phone, and walked to the bed in her slippers before climbing under the covers.
She unlocked the black screen again and, unsurprisingly, still got nothing but a clean screen, not even a single spam message.
After talking with her mother, nearly four hours had passed without a sound.
And Jiang Chao still hadn’t received a single message from Sheng Huaixi.
Her fingertips slid aimlessly back and forth across the screen. Jiang Chao stared at her phone in a daze, the hotel scene flashing repeatedly through her mind, her thoughts rising and falling in disorder.
The dim yellow light above swept across her face and eyes. In Jiang Chao’s gaze, a flicker of conflict flashed by.
Wait...?
Jiang Chao caught on to something, watching a familiar app flicker across the phone screen for an instant.
“Damn it! I forgot I installed a home camera!”
Then she’d be able to see whether Sheng Huaixi had gone home or not.
Jiang Chao clicked her tongue, surprise lighting her eyes. She shot up from the bed and tapped into the app.
Too excited, she even entered the wrong phone number once while waiting for the verification code.
The login succeeded. Jiang Chao hurriedly opened the home surveillance feed she had previously linked to her phone.
As expected, the screen was pitch-black; the room was quiet.
Jiang Chao bit her lip, her brows tightly locked, and kept scrubbing back stubbornly, dragging the timeline little by little.
Found it!
After nine o’clock, the home camera had recorded a spike in activity.
Jiang Chao swiped her finger and enlarged the image. When she saw Sheng Huaixi walking toward the door from behind, she froze slightly and quickly scrolled back again.
This time, it was easy for Jiang Chao to find what she wanted.
The video timestamp clearly showed that Sheng Huaixi had stayed home for less than three minutes before leaving.
And from the moment she left at nine until now, Sheng Huaixi had never come back. Her whereabouts were unknown.
Had she been driven off by what Jiang Chao said? Or had something suddenly come up?
Jiang Chao couldn’t help biting her thumb, staring fixedly at the screen. Her rapid breathing misted over the phone and was then brushed away by her frantic hand.
Sheng Huaixi turned back and glanced at the camera.
The living room, with no lights on, was black and deep. Even with the image enlarged to the maximum, Jiang Chao could only confirm one thing—
Sheng Huaixi had stood at the door and really had looked back, as if reluctant to leave, gazing for a long time.
Jiang Chao couldn’t make out the emotion in her eyes.
Still, the video clearly showed it—
Sheng Huaixi left home at 9:02:33, and at that very moment, the rain had just started pouring in earnest. The lightning flashing across the sky was clearly reflected in Jiang Chao’s bedroom window.
But Sheng Huaixi was still wearing that thin dress, and she left the house without even taking an umbrella.
So resolute, so unwavering, as if—
As if Sheng Huaixi would never come back to this home again.
Her lashes trembled. Jiang Chao froze at the thought, while the rain outside suddenly intensified, drowning out her hurried breathing and her almost-stalled heart.
Jiang Chao couldn’t believe it.
Did Sheng Huaixi really just leave their home like that?