Chapter 8

The fingers resting beside her tightened almost imperceptibly. Jiang Chao lowered her head. She understood. The turning point in the story had begun.

But she didn’t understand why Sheng Huaixi, who looked perfectly normal now and was trading barbs with Xu Jingwen in a calm tone, had suddenly become so agitated.

Listening to Xu Jingwen, Sheng Huaixi’s expression turned cold. She gave her no courtesy at all.

Sitting straight-backed, Sheng Huaixi lifted her eyes and said icily, “Get lost. Don’t call me by my name.”

Xu Jingwen’s expression didn’t change. Her smile only deepened, her gaze greedily tracing over Sheng Huaixi’s face inch by inch, while her own features remained soft and pleasant.

“Huaixi, don’t be like that.”

Her expression was gentle, her eyes smiling as she looked only at Sheng Huaixi. When she spoke so softly, it was as if she were talking to her lover, indulgent of her bad temper.

Sheng Huaixi only felt sick hearing it. Disgust surged up from her stomach; the good mood she’d had a moment ago was long gone, and her eyes darkened.

Her chest rising and falling, Sheng Huaixi forced down the restlessness in her heart and stared at Xu Jingwen word for word. “Get lost. Don’t make me say it a third time.”

She didn’t want to waste another second talking to Xu Jingwen today.

Xu Jingwen tilted her head, the smile at her lips carefully restrained. “Did I interrupt your business deal? Why haven’t I heard you mention this face before?”

The sound of the teacup being set down was crisp. Sheng Huaixi’s smile vanished completely. She turned to Xu Jingwen, chin slightly lowered, her brows and eyes arched with pure mockery.

“Am I close to you? Are you worthy? Do you even have the right?”

Jiang Chao’s gaze followed and landed on Xu Jingwen’s face.

The gentle smile she had maintained for a long time thinned under Sheng Huaixi’s rude words. Once that softness was gone, it disappeared completely.

Xu Jingwen said calmly, “Huaixi, have you forgotten what I told you?”

Standing there, she looked down at Sheng Huaixi’s strikingly gorgeous features. The blue qipao she wore gave her an even more secluded, cool, and dazzling air; it was the kind of beauty that made the skin itch with wanting.

Xu Jingwen’s tongue brushed lightly against the roof of her mouth. She leaned down and, across the table, pressed her wrist directly onto Sheng Huaixi’s shoulder. Her black hair fell by her cheek as she smiled intimately.

Seeing how unrestrained she was, Jiang Chao’s pupils contracted slightly, and her fists tightened in nervousness.

Sheng Huaixi...

“Huaixi, be good.” Xu Jingwen rested her hand lightly on Sheng Huaixi’s shoulder, brushing away nonexistent dust as she curved her lips and spoke softly. Her bearing was mild, but not to be refused.

“You said you don’t like people following behind you, so I called them all back.” Xu Jingwen chuckled, her lips parting and closing. “Into the crocodile pool.”

Jiang Chao’s breath caught. Her lowered lashes trembled in shock, and her palm dug painful crescent marks into itself; the reddened imprints seemed to strain upward.

Several lives, simply because Sheng Huaixi had discovered them and refused them, had been dealt with by Xu Jingwen with a casual wave of the hand, reduced to crocodile feed, dead without even a complete corpse.

Fresh, living lives had ended in a way more trivial than anyone could have imagined.

Just thinking about it made Jiang Chao tremble uncontrollably.

She sat with her eyes downcast at the side. Xu Jingwen glanced at her timid, shaking, useless appearance, then lost interest and shifted her attention back to Sheng Huaixi, excitement flashing at the coldness on her face.

Her breathing grew ragged. Xu Jingwen leaned in, her fingertips tracing lightly along the beautiful line of Sheng Huaixi’s neck and shoulders, her gaze obsessed and sticky, grazing over her through a layer of fabric.

Sheng Huaixi didn’t struggle today, as though she was considering the girl across from her and being unusually obedient.

Given her indulgence, Xu Jingwen’s wandering fingers became even bolder, lingering over her shoulder, the excitement in her eyes growing stronger by the second.

Her agitated breathing pressed shamelessly against Sheng Huaixi.

Xu Jingwen looked at that face she desired so much with infatuation, not missing a single frown or movement of her brows and eyes. When Sheng Huaixi shot her a cold glance, a thrilling numbness pierced the gaps in her bones, like ants crawling there.

It was as if she was born to love this feeling.

Xu Jingwen hooked a finger under her chin and said softly, “Huaixi, how about I kill Zhou Xu and the others? Then you won’t have to be coveted by them.”

Her words drifted lightly over the table, and there was no trace of human life in them at all.

Sheng Huaixi shook off the arm on her shoulder with a turn of her body and said coolly, “Don’t touch me.”

Her fingertips were brushed away, but Xu Jingwen only smiled, not discouraged in the least. Today’s sweetness had pleased her, and she was in far more of a mood to indulge than before.

Just as her wrist was about to reach forward again, a voice from beside them stopped her.

“She told you not to touch her.”

Jiang Chao spoke coldly. The brows and eyes that always wore a smile no longer held even a trace of warmth. She lifted her chin proudly and looked down at Xu Jingwen. “Didn’t you hear her?”

Turning, Xu Jingwen folded her hands and tapped her fingers leisurely, narrowing her eyes as she swept Jiang Chao from head to toe. Interest rose in her expression.

“I’ll touch her if I want to; I’ll cling to her if I want to. So what if she refuses?”

Taking a few steps closer, Xu Jingwen picked up the teacup beside Jiang Chao and narrowed her long eyes with a smile.

“What I want to do, I do. For example—”

She tilted the cup’s rim slightly, and the brimming water sloshed under the pressure and spilled downward. Droplets splattered recklessly across the table and onto Jiang Chao’s hand.

Xu Jingwen set the teacup down, pulled out a tissue, and handed it over. Her brows and eyes remained warm as she asked gently, “Do you understand now?”

Jiang Chao shook her hand off and ignored her. Arguing with a madwoman was a waste of breath; as long as Xu Jingwen’s attention shifted to her, that was enough. The rest didn’t matter.

With a careless roll of her eyes, Jiang Chao moved the soaked trench coat beside her to the other side.

Water spread flat across the table, dripping down in clear drops; the jade-white teacup with its blue pattern was casually turned upside down on the tabletop, and the neat table became a mess.

Footsteps sounded softly.

Looking up again, Jiang Chao was shocked to discover that Sheng Huaixi had actually stood beside her. The slender lines of the qipao outlined the woman’s graceful, long back, her butterfly bones seeming ready to flutter away.

“Apologize to Jiang Chao,” Sheng Huaixi said softly.

Jiang Chao froze. The body she had been about to rise with went rigid at those words. Looking at the back blocking her in front, her gaze grew complicated.

Confusion, incomprehension, speculation... all kinds of emotions flashed through her in an instant, crowding so tightly that her chest felt blocked, her eyes blank and uncertain.

Just now, when you were the one being made things difficult, you were clearly the one giving in. Why is it different when it’s my turn...

Jiang Chao couldn’t figure out Sheng Huaixi’s thoughts.

“You’re protecting her?” Xu Jingwen narrowed her eyes dangerously. Instead of retreating, she stepped closer, her gaze openly passing over Sheng Huaixi to look straight ahead.

Jealous hatred twisted wildly across her face. Because of Sheng Huaixi’s open defense, Xu Jingwen’s initial gentleness had completely fallen away.

Sheng Huaixi turned her body, blocking Xu Jingwen’s line of sight entirely so she couldn’t see even a sliver.

Biting hard at the tip of her tongue, Sheng Huaixi forced down the agitation in her body. Deep in her eyes flashed a dense, pitch-black possessiveness, and fury burned there like fire.

This was Jiang Chao’s first time eating Sichuan food after coming back to the country; it was also their first date since returning.

All that painstaking effort to dress up, this long-awaited date, had been utterly ruined by that damned Xu Jingwen.

And she had even splashed Jiang Chao.

Sheng Huaixi looked on coldly, her brows and eyes frigid. “You like pouring water, do you?”

Before Xu Jingwen could react, Sheng Huaixi turned sideways and lifted the kettle from the table with one hand, bringing it between them.

The round teapot was held horizontally; its surface was covered in a fine, warm glaze, the color soft and lustrous as jade. The misty heat had already faded, but the warmth remained.

Behind the teapot, Sheng Huaixi tugged at the corner of her mouth, drawing up a wild, vicious smile.

“Then let’s try it together, shall we?”

The words fell. Jiang Chao, caught completely off guard, only heard the rush of water pouring down; Xu Jingwen’s muffled, choking breath suddenly rang out.

No one had expected Sheng Huaixi to do that.

At first, Jiang Chao had sensed something was wrong the moment Sheng Huaixi spoke, and even more so when she lifted the kettle upside down.

Seeing this, Jiang Chao’s expression changed drastically. In a panic, she stood up and hurried behind Sheng Huaixi, wrapping an arm around the woman’s narrow waist to stop her from going after Xu Jingwen without restraint.

“Don’t go!”

Boiling water crashed to the floor in torrents, splashing in all directions as the heat spread rapidly.

Jiang Chao held Sheng Huaixi tightly. Looking up at her wrist, she saw the veins standing out, the kettle still tilted; the first pour still wasn’t over.

If her right hand got scalded again, that would be terrible!

Panic flashed across her face. Jiang Chao didn’t care about anything else. Pressed against Sheng Huaixi’s back, she rose onto her toes to snatch the teapot from her hand.

Unluckily, the spout swayed, and Jiang Chao missed at the last second; she could only watch helplessly as her fingertips brushed past it and instantly caught the heat.

No!

In her field of vision, Sheng Huaixi’s wrist lifted again, as though she were about to tip out the entire pot of boiling water. Xu Jingwen laughed wildly, taunting them nonstop.

Neither of them backed down; instead, they slammed viciously into each other.

This wasn’t the kind of fight where both sides lost a little and both sides lost a lot. This was a stubborn refusal to stop until one killed the other.

Meeting eyes, both women seemed completely immersed in another world of extremity and madness, unafraid of the boiling water being poured down, ignoring pain, ignoring everything around them.

The rational thread binding their emotions had already snapped; they were insane.

In that instant, Jiang Chao watched Sheng Huaixi’s wrist lift firmly, water beading at the mouth of the pot, crystal clear.

Her wildly beating heart felt like it was about to burst out of her chest. Jiang Chao’s eyes flew wide open, panic flooding her face as her breathing tightened.

“Sheng Huaixi!”

Jiang Chao cried out and leaped forward at the critical moment.

Reaching up with all her strength, she quickly snatched the teapot into her hands, gripped Sheng Huaixi’s wrist, and swung it back. Her palm flashed past and slapped down onto the table with a sharp sound.

A dull thud sounded low.

Not caring about anything else, Jiang Chao immediately grabbed Sheng Huaixi’s left hand and ran toward the restroom. Passing Xu Jingwen, she walked straight by without the slightest hesitation.

Their business could be settled later, but Sheng Huaixi’s wrist couldn’t wait until later.

Striding quickly, Jiang Chao was frantic. She had originally wanted to grab the person and just run, but after glancing down in haste at the thin high heels on Sheng Huaixi’s feet, she unconsciously slowed down.

She walked at a pace that matched how Sheng Huaixi would walk in heels without twisting an ankle.

Jiang Chao never turned back to look at Sheng Huaixi’s expression, and she also completely missed the fact that, on what should have been a pained face, a delighted smile had surfaced instead.

Her eyes shifting slightly, Sheng Huaixi looked at the back walking in front of her with fascination and greed. The warmth and force in that hand told her this wasn’t a dream.

This time, it wasn’t a dream.

Finally reaching the sink, Jiang Chao guided Sheng Huaixi’s scalded wrist under the water and carefully rolled up her sleeve, her brows tightly drawn as she watched.

Only when cold water poured down, truly washing over Sheng Huaixi’s wrist under Jiang Chao’s gaze, did the breath trapped in her chest slowly release.

After being scalded like that and then flushed with cold water, she still needed to go to the hospital.

Jiang Chao’s mind raced, thinking about which nearby hospital was closest. Beside her, the gurgling sound of water went on, and the ringing in Jiang Chao’s ears, which had been lingering for a long time, gradually faded.

When the buzzing finally disappeared for real, Jiang Chao only then realized belatedly that she had actually had tinnitus.

Water continued to wash over the reddened wrist. Jiang Chao held her breath, gently pinching her elbow and carefully leaning closer to look, afraid she might irritate the wound.

The wrist trembled and tried to pull back. Jiang Chao immediately clamped down on the elbow and held both sides in place. “Don’t move.”

The wrist was red; the pale, supple skin that usually covered it was now flushed with heat and redness, trembling uncontrollably.

Jiang Chao only had to look at it to feel a suffocating tightness in her chest.

Lowering her head, Jiang Chao’s hair covered half her face, making her expression indistinct, but the fingers gripping Sheng Huaixi’s elbow couldn’t help trembling.

Someone gently ruffled the top of her head.

“Are you even more afraid of me now?” Sheng Huaixi asked with a soft laugh.

Jiang Chao froze, then lifted her head in disbelief. Her flower-like eyes went wide; watery light shimmered slowly in their depths, and a few teardrops fell, clinging pitifully at the corners.

Fingertips brushed tenderly at the corner of her eye, then slowly wiped the tears away.

“Crying from fright, huh..."

Sheng Huaixi lowered her head, her expression troubled, as though she truly worried because of Jiang Chao’s tears, utterly unaware of the pain in the crimson burn on her wrist.

Were her feelings, her tears, that important?

Something in Jiang Chao’s heart seemed to be struck hard.

A tear finally slid from the corner of her eye down her cheek. Jiang Chao sniffled and apologized.

“Sorry... Sheng Huaixi...”