Chapter 70

“Sheng Huaixi.” Jiang Chao patted Sheng Huaixi’s back, her touch gentle. “Listen to me first, okay?”

Sheng Huaixi refused without hesitation, her voice muffled. “No.”

Whatever Jiang Chao hadn’t finished saying was a mystery, something beyond Sheng Huaixi’s expectations. Under the weight of that sudden blow, Sheng Huaixi couldn’t tell whether Jiang Chao, standing at the center of it all, would choose to fall with her.

If...

Sheng Huaixi’s eyes darkened. The breath pushed from her throat grew heavier and heavier.

The arm locked around Jiang Chao’s lower back tightened bit by bit, and every so often hot breaths brushed her cheek, making her tremble. Afraid the two of them would misunderstand each other again, Jiang Chao turned her face toward Sheng Huaixi’s neck.

The rise and fall of her breathing was plain against her neck; pale skin was taut with emotion, the motion of each breath tracing a continuous line.

Sheng Huaixi’s tension was obvious at a glance.

But if she thought about it carefully, that tension had probably been building for a long time.

Sheng Huaixi answered almost every question Jiang Chao asked, as if she wanted to pour everything she had into Jiang Chao’s arms.

Jiang Chao had always believed that as long as she kept stuffing more and more things that belonged to Sheng Huaixi into her own hands, the thread between them would only grow tighter and tighter.

But when Sheng Huaixi learned that Jiang Chao had approached Bai Xiangshu to find out what had happened six years ago, she had said nothing.

Sending Bai Xiangshu away, stopping Bai Xiangshu... all of it. Jiang Chao was frustrated with herself for not realizing Sheng Huaixi’s avoidance sooner.

If she had figured it out earlier; earlier still; even earlier...

But time had no ifs. Jiang Chao had already left six years ago, and there was nothing she could do for Sheng Huaixi.

When Jiang Chao spoke, there was still a faint nasal quality to her voice, soft and slightly sticky, but afraid Sheng Huaixi would misunderstand, she enunciated every word clearly.

Her breath brushed Sheng Huaixi’s earlobe as she spoke, making the soft white lobe twitch slightly. Jiang Chao had no mind to pay attention to it.

“Sheng Huaixi, do you think that once I know what happened to you six years ago, I’ll abandon you?”

“Yes.” Sheng Huaixi nodded, her chin brushing Jiang Chao’s shoulder as she answered without the slightest hesitation.

For a second, Jiang Chao even felt a flash of anger at that utterly immediate answer.

Did Sheng Huaixi really see her as that kind of person?!

Then Jiang Chao frowned. The hand that had been patting and soothing her slowed, and her once-clear thoughts were once again swallowed by fog.

She knew about what happened six years ago, and Sheng Huaixi thought she might abandon her because of it. Was that really reasonable?

From what she had heard from Li Yun before, Jiang Chao could roughly piece together what had happened at the time.

Six years ago, Xu Jingwen and the Sheng family had worked together to set Sheng Huaixi up. That night, every alcoholic drink and beverage at the scene had been drugged by Xu Jingwen and the others.

Maybe by some twist of fate, or maybe for other reasons, Sheng Huaixi and Xu Jingwen’s group had all been affected in the end, and both sides had gone down.

It was clearly a case where everyone lost. So why had Sheng Huaixi’s emotions fluctuated so violently?

Unless there was more to it than what Li Yun and the others had said!

In the matter from six years ago, Sheng Huaixi must have done something else as well. What she was truly worried about, what she was truly afraid Jiang Chao would find out, was probably that.

“Sheng Huaixi, wait. Calm down first.”

In case they misunderstood each other again, Jiang Chao raised a hand and took the initiative to pull Sheng Huaixi into her arms, patting her. She rubbed her cheek haphazardly against Sheng Huaixi’s shoulder, closing the distance between them.

Their sticky bodies pressed even closer. Jiang Chao leaned in too far, her toes barely touching the floor as she swayed for a moment, then used that force to settle herself.

“Mhm.”

Following Jiang Chao’s lead, Sheng Huaixi half-lidded her eyes, the restlessness in their depths already suppressed, returning to her usual cool indifference.

Comfortably, Sheng Huaixi slowly shifted her chin from Jiang Chao’s shoulder to her neck. Her clean, smooth skin brushed pleasantly against Jiang Chao’s, and the faint scent of Jiang Chao’s hair lingered around her nose.

Soft, calm, and without the slightest aggression—it was the best kind of soothing medicine. Sheng Huaixi’s long lashes lowered, and her dark eyes drifted down quietly as her emotions softened in Jiang Chao’s embrace.

She could still listen properly.

Jiang Chao let out a breath of relief.

After coaxing her into calmness, Jiang Chao once again lifted a hand and patted the back under her palm, telling Sheng Huaixi the thought she had just had and trying to get one missing piece of the puzzle from her.

After listening, Sheng Huaixi was silent for a long while before suddenly asking, “Where did you hear about this?”

Jiang Chao was baffled. She turned her eyes sideways, but could only see Sheng Huaixi’s pale earlobe. She didn’t know why Sheng Huaixi had suddenly thought to ask that.

“At the public hot spring, on the way back from the lobby after I went to get the wine.”

Clenching her teeth, Sheng Huaixi slowly closed her glittering black eyes; a flash of sharp light passed through them and vanished quickly.

Jiang Chao’s answer completely dispelled Sheng Huaixi’s suspicion.

The two people she had arranged in advance for Jiang Chao hadn’t been encountered by Jiang Chao at all; she hadn’t even made it to that place.

By a twist of fate, Jiang Chao had run into someone in the public hot spring, and that person had told her about what happened six years ago.

But... Sheng Huaixi still felt a thread of relief. Jiang Chao didn’t know how she had responded to that incident six years ago.

If Jiang Chao knew, what she would care about wouldn’t be the final outcome, but why Sheng Huaixi had been so ruthless as to do something like that.

The miserable state she had been in then was something Sheng Huaixi never wanted Jiang Chao to know.

Slowly closing her eyes, Sheng Huaixi still remembered—

The scorching heat that had been extinguished all over her body by red wine still lingered inside her. Red and white sticky fluids covered the floor; a drugged, dizzying fragrance drifted through the air...

In the pool room, the gorgeous, dazzling lights swayed wildly. Beneath the air exchanger, the intoxicating scent in the air grew stronger and stronger, and on the faces of the crowd shuffling about was that dazed look of desire hitting the floor.

Sheng Huaixi called it hell.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chao’s expression turned serious as she keenly sensed a shift in Sheng Huaixi’s mood, her brows drawing tight.

Shaking her head, Sheng Huaixi said nothing.

The person in her arms fell silent. Jiang Chao continued to pat her back, one hand after another, while her pupils shifted slightly as she thought.

Tentatively, Jiang Chao quietly took a step back on her toes.

Before her foot had fully landed, the hand around her waist tightened decisively, and Jiang Chao was instantly pinned in place, not allowed the slightest movement.

“Don’t move.” Sheng Huaixi buried her face against her and said in a muffled voice.

“It’s too tight...” Jiang Chao said, patting Sheng Huaixi’s lower back as she tried to negotiate. “Loosen up a little.”

A pair of arms clamped firmly around her waist; Sheng Huaixi leaned down, her body pressing into Jiang Chao’s arms. Whether forced or willing, Jiang Chao remained frozen midair.

“You don’t want me to know what happened to you six years ago?” Jiang Chao asked cautiously, turning it into a question.

Sheng Huaixi’s fingertips stiffened. “Yes.”

The guess was confirmed, and Jiang Chao wasn’t surprised; after all, Sheng Huaixi had already hinted at that possibility.

“Because you’re afraid that once I know what you were like then, I’ll leave you?”

“...Yes.”

Jiang Chao’s shoulder was bitten hard, as if Sheng Huaixi were angry that she had asked so carefully.

Jiang Chao hissed in pain, her shoulder muscles tightening reflexively. Turning her eyes sideways, she saw the veins at Sheng Huaixi’s neck standing out as she struggled.

This was something Sheng Huaixi did not want to face...

After freezing for a moment, Jiang Chao licked her lips, relaxed her body, and offered her shoulder up beneath Sheng Huaixi’s mouth.

“Just this once. Bite as much as you want.”