Chapter 45

What exactly had happened to Sheng Huaixi last night?

Jiang Chao sat by the bedside, both hands braced against her face in frustration. Every so often, she kneaded at her cheeks, treating her soft skin like a lump of dough and squeezing it without restraint.

It was as if she were wringing all the tangled feelings in her chest into that small space, her palms pressing and folding again and again, as if she could force everything into submission.

Again and again, Jiang Chao was harsh on herself, but the questions in her head only multiplied.

An aphrodisiac...

Why had Sheng Huaixi been drugged with one?

Through the gaps between her fingers, Jiang Chao’s bloodshot eyes fixed on Sheng Huaixi, who was asleep on the bed. The knot between her brows had gradually eased now that she had drifted off.

She must be having a good dream.

But Jiang Chao was trapped in a nightmare, struggling again and again, with no way to save her.

“Miss Jiang, before Miss Sheng recovers, I suggest you don’t talk to her too much. She needs to rest right now.”

Dr. Zhou’s words cut through the anger building on Jiang Chao’s face. She clenched her fist and stared at Sheng Huaixi on the bed for a long time.

Then, without hesitation, she turned and went into Sheng Huaixi’s room to fetch what she needed.

Footsteps rang crisply in the hallway, and the anger in Jiang Chao’s heart burned hotter and hotter, fed like a wildfire by a bucket of hot oil Sheng Huaixi had thrown over it.

If Jiang Chao hadn’t been wary of Sheng Huaixi suddenly dropping that clingy act, she might really have left the room as Sheng Huaixi had told her and gone obediently to get the things.

And in doing so, Sheng Huaixi would have kept her completely in the dark about this matter.

Sheng Huaixi wanted to hide it from her, and she was also trying to hide what she had done about those pursuers.

At that thought, Jiang Chao covered her face, her eyes darkening as she let out a silent sigh.

Clearly, last time, when it came to dealing with Zhou Xu, she had already told Sheng Huaixi.

If anything like that happened again, she was to call her without hesitation.

And last night...

Not only had she failed to receive any message from Sheng Huaixi saying she was safe, Sheng Huaixi hadn’t even called or texted her for help after being drugged with something like that.

Was it mistrust? Or danger? Or maybe Sheng Huaixi simply didn’t want her involved in these things...

Jiang Chao didn’t know.

And the person who could give her an answer was now asleep because of the drip, her face quiet and calm.

In the room, to give Sheng Huaixi a good sleeping environment, Jiang Chao had only left on a small bedside lamp, its dim glow faintly illuminating a small patch beside the bed.

With the yellowish light, the curtains drawn tight, and the door shut, the entire room felt dim and heavy.

It had a natural sleepiness to it.

Jiang Chao was short on sleep, but the layers of doubt in her heart kept stacking one after another; her thoughts raced, and her gaze kept drifting to Sheng Huaixi’s face.

It was as if a spiderweb had stretched between them, a thin yet resilient thread wrapping the two of them together. With even the slightest tug, both of them would feel it.

And on the other hand, if one person quietly crawled along the web toward the other side, as long as the slack in the thread wasn’t pulled tight, the other would never know.

Sheng Huaixi, that cunning liar.

“Liar,” Jiang Chao muttered softly.

She had told her not to hide things from her, yet Sheng Huaixi still chose to do exactly that.

“I didn’t lie to you.”

The person who had been asleep somehow woke quietly. Sheng Huaixi’s hazy eyes rested on Jiang Chao, and the flickering dim light in them gave her gaze a faint, dreamy blur.

She had not been awake long; her voice was still a little hoarse. Her eyelids lifted slightly as she looked straight at Jiang Chao without dodging or avoiding her.

She looked entirely innocent.

That sight only made the anger Jiang Chao had forced down surge up again.

The pent-up emotions were no longer something she could hold back.

“Didn’t lie to me?” A cold laugh scraped out of her throat. Jiang Chao leaned down decisively, one hand braced on the bed as her fingers tightened hard around the sheets. “Sheng Huaixi, how do you have the nerve to say something like that?”

Sheng Huaixi watched her in silence.

Under the blurred light, the anger in Jiang Chao’s eyes was still vivid, pressed behind her lashes and even stirring a faint ripple at the corners of her eyes; the redness had risen into her pupils.

Without thinking, Sheng Huaixi wanted to lift a hand and catch the tears that might fall from Jiang Chao’s eyes.

Jiang Chao was the kind of person who cried easily; she knew that.

As long as Jiang Chao’s emotions were stirred even slightly, with her inner turmoil surging and churning, even if that wasn’t what Jiang Chao intended, her eyes would still involuntarily fill with tears.

She thought it, but she didn’t do it. She only watched quietly, waiting for Jiang Chao to finish saying everything she had on her mind.

“You woke up after sleeping for a while, and you’ve already forgotten what you just said to Dr. Zhou, is that it?”

Jiang Chao leaned in even closer, her eyes burning with anger, and the mention of it only sharpened her irritation.

She had deliberately made a request Jiang Chao couldn’t refuse, creating a chance to be alone with Dr. Zhou just so she could tell her to conceal the blood test report.

“Dr. Zhou can know, but I can’t, is that it?” Jiang Chao pressed her lips together so tightly it looked as if she might bite through them. Her voice dropped abruptly. “What kind of person do you think I am?”

“You don’t trust me that much...?”

In the room, Jiang Chao’s voice went from heated at the start to low and subdued by the end, and the emotions in her eyes shifted with it.

From the angry irritation at first to the hurt doubt now, step by step, all under Sheng Huaixi’s gaze.

For a moment, Jiang Chao had even thought that if Sheng Huaixi wanted to hide it, why not simply say she was afraid of having blood drawn and cut off any chance of Jiang Chao finding out at all?

After spilling everything out, Jiang Chao covered her face, her shoulders visibly slumping as she curled up carefully, breathing quick and uneven.

After holding it in for a long time, Jiang Chao felt the fabric of her pants tug near her knees. A low voice, heavy with regret, came through the space between her hands.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said all that to you right now.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

Sheng Huaixi was still a patient. Dr. Zhou had said not to let her talk too much before she had fully recovered.

And she, as soon as Sheng Huaixi had finished the drip and just woken up, had immediately ignored Dr. Zhou’s instructions.

The more she thought about it, the more regretful Jiang Chao became. She took a deep breath, lowered the hand covering her face, and stood up, planning to go to the bathroom and splash cold water on her face to clear her head.

She wanted to settle accounts with Sheng Huaixi, but not now; at the very least, it had to wait until Sheng Huaixi was fully recovered.

Just as Jiang Chao got to her feet, a soft call came from behind her.

“Jiang Chao.”

She stopped where she was. Thinking Sheng Huaixi was uncomfortable somewhere, Jiang Chao turned back and bent down slightly. “What is it?”

Sheng Huaixi lifted her wrist and said calmly, “Hold me.”

Those two slender arms were still beautiful even in the dim light. Her eyes, still wet and glistening from the fever, wandered in a daze before suddenly blooming into a smile; her voice was low and hoarse, impossible to ignore.

Jiang Chao froze in front of her, looking at Sheng Huaixi with a trace of annoyance in her eyes.

She didn’t understand why Sheng Huaixi could always...

say such intimate things without changing expression. Or maybe this time, she was the one who had misread it.

She had just unloaded a whole torrent of words on Sheng Huaixi, and the very first thing Sheng Huaixi said after opening her mouth was to ask for a hug.

What hug.

Did she even have the mind for that...

Sheng Huaixi looked at her, lifting her thin wrist a little higher and letting her brows and eyes droop as she repeated, “Hold me.”

Jiang Chao bent down and took both of her arms, wrapping them around the back of her neck. Her own wrist rested lightly on Sheng Huaixi’s shoulder; the hot breath washing over her made her head spin.

The fabric resting on her shoulder was neither too thin nor too thick, and Jiang Chao could clearly feel the straight line of Sheng Huaixi’s collarbone shifting as it connected to her shoulder.

Each time she moved, when Sheng Huaixi let out a muffled sound, the collarbone would brush against her palm too, through the layer of cloth, tickling in a way that was hard to bear.

Jiang Chao wondered if she’d caught a cold from Sheng Huaixi.

Otherwise, why would her mind feel so foggy that she was actually agreeing to Sheng Huaixi’s request—or perhaps invitation was the more accurate word.

Those watery eyes would narrow slightly as they reached out to you with that wrist, patiently and softly repeating the request twice, like a little cat begging for your embrace.

The key point was, she had just scolded her.

Jiang Chao didn’t know how many steps back she had already taken in front of Sheng Huaixi. She couldn’t even count them anymore.

It was only a hug, she told herself.

She leaned farther forward, trying her best to shield Sheng Huaixi from the wind blowing in from behind her, and her eyes briefly fell on the arm by Sheng Huaixi’s cheek.

“Should I put your hand under the blanket? That might be better.”

Even if it was only a little cold air, Jiang Chao still didn’t want Sheng Huaixi to make her cold worse over something so small.

After all, she remembered how shockingly slowly Sheng Huaixi recovered.

“No need.” Sheng Huaixi refused softly, shrinking deeper under the covers and bringing Jiang Chao’s wrist along with her.

Since Sheng Huaixi had taken the initiative to say so, Jiang Chao didn’t say anything else and let her be.

The palm that had only been resting on Sheng Huaixi’s shoulder shifted to hold her instead as Sheng Huaixi moved. Jiang Chao frowned slightly and tried hard not to let her own weight press down on Sheng Huaixi.

The skin of her arm, braced beside Sheng Huaixi’s face, was faintly taut and occasionally trembled.

“I thought about calling you last night.”

Sheng Huaixi suddenly spoke.

Jiang Chao lowered her head, surprise flashing across her eyes. Her first thought was that she had missed Sheng Huaixi’s call, then she understood.

“But you didn’t call me.”

If Sheng Huaixi had really called her, Jiang Chao would absolutely not have failed to hear it last night.

The obvious dark circles beneath her eyes were proof.

The arm around the back of her neck tightened even more, and Jiang Chao’s body involuntarily sagged downward. A low sigh brushed against her ear.

“Because I was afraid, Jiang Chao.”

Sheng Huaixi held the person in her arms tighter, burying her face without ceremony into Jiang Chao’s neck. She breathed in the familiar scent on Jiang Chao’s body, gentle and indulgent.

Jiang Chao didn’t understand. “Afraid?”

Sheng Huaixi would feel fear toward her?

“Of course.” Sheng Huaixi smiled, her body trembling faintly with the sound of it.

When facing Jiang Chao, Sheng Huaixi never denied how bad she was, nor did she deny that she was, in fact, a coward.

“I was afraid you’d reject me again without hesitation, just like you did at the banquet.”

“An appeal that even I couldn’t get you to accept—would a phone call really have been enough?”

Sheng Huaixi’s throat moved, and a dark look flashed at the bottom of her eyes as she stared at the strands of hair trembling in front of her.

Her breath rolled through her chest and organs, pain spreading through her.

“If that really happened...”

“I’d be jealous to the point of madness.”

Sheng Huaixi would think: why could she not do it, when the one just now could?

Jiang Chao was quiet for a long time before suddenly asking,

“So this was deliberate, after careful consideration?”