Chapter 64

“Do I?”

Sheng Huaixi didn’t mind at all that Jiang Chao had her wrist in a firm grip. Her long lashes fluttered once. The corners of her lips lifted as she looked up at Jiang Chao, and the tip of her bright red tongue slipped out slightly beneath that gaze.

The strength in Jiang Chao’s hand tightened before she even realized it. Sheng Huaixi arched a brow. “You’re basically pointing at my face when you say that.”

“Mm... but isn’t what I said the truth?” Sheng Huaixi asked, watching the darkness deepen in Jiang Chao’s eyes. Unhurried, she shifted her wrist in the grip that held her.

It was obvious: a thin layer of irritation had crept over Jiang Chao’s face. Her lowered lashes trembled violently, because Sheng Huaixi’s words were stirring up waves in her heart.

Sheng Huaixi curved her lips faintly and stared at Jiang Chao with wolfish intensity, then asked in return,

“Have you not been teasing me every day and then leaving me on the side as if nothing happened? There have obviously been many times like that lately.”

As she spoke, Sheng Huaixi’s gaze deepened, and her voice dropped with the story she was telling.

Many times?

Jiang Chao finally caught on. The look Sheng Huaixi gave her hadn’t changed for a long while; when she said these things, it wasn’t her usual teasing, but was genuinely tinged with a bit of grievance.

Had she really been teasing Sheng Huaixi that often lately?

Jiang Chao carefully thought back over what she had done recently, one thing after another flashing through her mind like a revolving lantern.

Because this was her first time coming into frequent and rapid contact with the people Sheng Huaixi usually dealt with, every last one of them had feverish, blazing eyes, and each incident had left a deep impression on her.

Just thinking about it, Jiang Chao slightly turned her gaze away and avoided Sheng Huaixi’s aggressive, aggrieved stare. Her whole aura wilted as she quietly dodged.

Everything she had done this past week came rushing back to her, none of it missing...

After the last conversation, the final agreement between the two of them had been silently urging Jiang Chao every day to get moving at once; she had even given it a self-appointed name: the “clear out the trash around Sheng Huaixi” operation.

In order to deal with the constant stream of trash around Sheng Huaixi, Jiang Chao had spent quite a bit of effort. After throwing money at the problem and throwing leverage at it too, she had made fairly good progress.

When faced with a choice between bread and love, even the most fervent feelings could waver easily under an overwhelming display of money and a sliver of power.

Once she had shaken one person loose, Jiang Chao copied the same method and succeeded one after another.

But some were deeply scheming hard cases; Jiang Chao couldn’t handle them alone. She had to drag Sheng Huaixi out to lure them into the open before she could catch them.

And to lure them out; more precisely, to provoke them out; Jiang Chao had no choice but to do some clingy things to Sheng Huaixi.

Including, but not limited to—

On the weekend, Jiang Chao pulled Sheng Huaixi to a café and claimed she wanted to find little inspirations from life. After taking a gentle sip from the rim of the cup, she deliberately handed Sheng Huaixi the side she had already drunk from.

A fresh, wet sheen was clearly stamped on the rim.

Even now, Jiang Chao still remembered the look Sheng Huaixi had given her when she lowered her eyes and saw the lipstick mark.

Those narrow eyes slowly narrowed, her bearing subtly and powerfully sharpened. After letting out a soft “oh,” she lightly rocked the coffee in her hand, examined the faint red imprint with unhurried composure, then looked back up at Jiang Chao.

“For me?”

The moment those words fell, Jiang Chao felt two gloomy gazes land on her at once; one was Sheng Huaixi’s, and the other belonged to the person she was trying to hook.

Jiang Chao straightened her back and met Sheng Huaixi’s openly excited gaze without the slightest sign of retreat. She nodded firmly.

“Yes.”

To make Sheng Huaixi drink it, Jiang Chao had specially ordered a coffee that tasted a little astringent. She curved her eyes and looked at Sheng Huaixi softly, then tipped her chin and said,

“I’ve always said I’d treat you to a cup of the kind you like. Try this and see; do you like it?”

Jiang Chao pressed her lips into a faint smile and avoided mentioning the lip print on the rim, simply letting Sheng Huaixi taste the coffee she had specially ordered.

In the end, under Jiang Chao’s direct stare, Sheng Huaixi pressed her rosy red lips to the pale mark on the cup and finished the coffee inside.

Only after drinking it did a strange flush spread faintly across Sheng Huaixi’s face. Jiang Chao glanced at it quickly and didn’t dare look again.

Under the café’s dim orange light, Sheng Huaixi’s watery eyes seemed to hold a deep, hidden sea; the blue fire rising from the rim of the cup was cold and brilliant, dangerous and mesmerizing.

Jiang Chao had only brushed over it for a second, yet that boiling flame was already carrying a scorching smile toward her, winding around her body as if it meant to swallow her whole.

Terrifying.

“So you remember.”

Sheng Huaixi smiled with her eyes half-lidded, tracking the person who had lost steam and looked away. Her fingertips lightly brushed across Jiang Chao’s palm.

The itching sensation from that touch rolled up along her blue veins. Jiang Chao’s hand froze in place, but her fingers still curled involuntarily, trembling on reflex.

Once those recent memories surged back into her mind, Jiang Chao couldn’t refute what Sheng Huaixi had just said.

She really had deliberately teased her several times just to draw out those figures lurking in the dark.

But—

“I didn’t dump you on the side,” Jiang Chao said, shaking the wrist they were both gripping, her palm tightening with force. “I very seriously asked if you wanted to come with me to see my friend.”

“And then, by such a perfect coincidence, Aunt Jiang called me at that exact moment, said she was very worried about her daughter’s work situation, and invited me to have lunch with her.”

Sheng Huaixi half propped herself up and raised a brow. “Just that coincidentally?”

Jiang Chao nodded with certainty, her expression without the slightest hesitation. “It really was just a coincidence; besides, you looked really happy when you left, didn’t you?”

If she remembered correctly, after Sheng Huaixi finished the call, she directly took Jiang Chao’s car to go meet Jiang’s mother. After hearing that Jiang Chao still had another appointment later, her cold expression had softened as well.

Jiang Chao had even rarely enjoyed the treatment of sitting in the passenger seat.

“Fine, let’s put that aside for now and keep talking about how you deliberately teased me.” Sheng Huaixi arched a brow and leaned in close beside Jiang Chao, pressing against her.

Jiang Chao’s lips parted; she had originally wanted to struggle a little more, but Sheng Huaixi’s faint, smiling eyes had already turned toward her, carrying a subtle eagerness, clearly waiting for her to keep resisting.

Jiang Chao gave up decisively. “Fine. Tell me what you want me to pay you back with.”

Her wrist was released. Jiang Chao looked up and caught the smile that instantly lifted at the corners of Sheng Huaixi’s mouth, and she couldn’t help pinching the thigh beside her hand twice in irritation.

“Come on, say it. What do you want me to pay you back with? You’d better have already thought it through, right?” Jiang Chao asked, the second half of the sentence spoken with certainty.

Sheng Huaixi let out a soft laugh from her throat. She braced herself behind her with one hand, radiating natural allure, and casually hooked a finger, signaling Jiang Chao to bend down.

Jiang Chao’s brows twitched, but she still obediently leaned forward, bowing her head in front of Sheng Huaixi. “What is it?”

The cool touch in her hand reached Jiang Chao’s senses before the soft words Sheng Huaixi spoke beside her ear did.

Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the fabric in her hand. Listening to Sheng Huaixi’s words breathed into her ear, Jiang Chao’s ears turned redder and redder, until she looked like a cloud of burning sunset, utterly embarrassed.

After hearing everything, Jiang Chao shoved Sheng Huaixi away and stood up at once, then angrily tossed the fabric in her hand against Sheng Huaixi’s chest. Her face was flushed crimson as she snapped,

“Sheng Huaixi, you lunatic!”

The lunatic curled her lips and, lying back on Jiang Chao’s bed, smiled with unrestrained delight, eyes half-squinted in happiness.

“Don’t forget to wear it tomorrow.”