Drunk

Zhu Qing felt down, frustration surging through her in a hot wave.

She couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from. All she knew was that it made her feel as if she’d ruined everything.

Right now, there was only one thought in Zhu Qing’s head: she shouldn’t have pushed Li Lan.

She didn’t even know what kind of person she was anymore, let alone what would hit Li Lan where it hurt. And sure enough, that one line about the two of them “no longer being in love” had shut her out completely.

Zhu Qing slowly cleared away the food Li Lan hadn’t finished, then sat down on the swing by the floor-to-ceiling window and rocked gently. The sunset, red as rouge, faded little by little; night crept into the room inch by inch, and gradually, Zhu Qing forced that heaviness down.

A notification popped up on her phone.

“Your special follow has just posted on Weibo. Go take a look!”

Zhu Qing took out her phone. She had smashed her old one when she fell down the stairs; this was a replacement, and she hadn’t gotten around to turning off app notifications one by one.

The Weibo app was shameless too; it was always pushing all kinds of celebrity news.

At first, Zhu Qing had wanted to delete it, but then she remembered that Li Lan worked in entertainment, so she’d started paying attention to entertainment news as well.

She thought it would be some random celebrity gossip, but when she clicked in, she saw that her special follow was Li Lan.

The photo hadn’t been overedited. The contrast between light and shadow was stronger, and the tone, once hazy orange-red, now carried more of the coolness of nightfall.

She was still as beautiful as ever.

By the time Zhu Qing came to herself, the comments had already piled up into over a hundred replies.

Qian Cancan’s call came right on its heels.

“Did you take the photo Li Lan just posted?”

As expected of a best friend, Qian Cancan could always catch Zhu Qing’s traces sharply and accurately.

“She’s a big star. She has a studio. Why would you think it was me?” Zhu Qing, unusually, didn’t admit it right away.

Qian Cancan laughed. “Because the style’s different, duh. The composition, the color tone, and all that sex appeal spilling across the whole frame—what else could it be but your favorite style?”

Zhu Qing was silent for a long time before she said quietly, “Is it? So what if it is? There are still people who don’t like it.”

Clutching her phone, Zhu Qing went back into the room and slammed the door shut.

Qian Cancan heard the oddness in her voice and asked cautiously, “...What’s wrong?”

Zhu Qing gloomily explained what had happened earlier in a few brief sentences.

“Ah, yeah, that’s about what I expected,” Qian Cancan said, trying to comfort her. “But what did Li Lan say? Why didn’t she agree?”

Zhu Qing didn’t tell Qian Cancan the details, only said vaguely, “Maybe there’s something wrong with our relationship.”

Qian Cancan sighed.

The two of them fell silent. Qian Cancan was close to Zhu Qing, but she didn’t know much about the details of how Zhu Qing and Li Lan got along, so even if she saw the situation, she couldn’t think of a solution.

After a while of quiet.

Zhu Qing suddenly grabbed the keys from the table. “Let’s go out for a drink.”

Qian Cancan didn’t react at first. “Huh?”

“Same old place. See you in a bit.”

With that, Zhu Qing hung up.

After Qian Cancan understood what Zhu Qing had said, she stared at her phone; her face went red, then white, then dark as a pot bottom.

Ever since Zhu Qing got drunk and ended up in bed with Li Lan, she had quit drinking entirely and hadn’t touched a drop in a year.

And after confirming her relationship with Li Lan, Zhu Qing rarely stayed out at night, and almost never went to the bars and clubs she used to frequent.

Qian Cancan thought in silence for two minutes, then decisively chose the latter between “calling to stop Zhu Qing” and “going out to keep her long-lost old best friend company and relive the old days.”

Before leaving, she thought of something and took out her phone to glance at WeChat.

The chat window still only had her own messages.

The messages she’d sent to Qian Chu still hadn’t been answered.

-

“Why did you go looking for Xiao Qing?” Li Lan dialed the number with a displeased expression and questioned her bluntly the moment the call connected. “What did you tell her?”

Qian Chu was in the studio handling Li Lan’s various commercial contracts, so busy she was seeing stars. Hearing this, she fell silent for two seconds. “I only explained the pros and cons of this variety show to her.”

A haze of irritation sat between Li Lan’s brows and eyes. Her voice was low and heavy. “Anything else?”

Qian Chu moved to a quiet place and said softly, “I also told her that this contract was signed by her and you together.”

Li Lan snapped, “What exactly are you trying to do?”

Qian Chu’s voice was even lower and quicker. “Manager Lan, Zhu Qing was clearly willing to do the show with you. I can tell she doesn’t reject you at all. She agreed because this variety show is good for you, because she truly wanted to help you...”

“So what? Which friend isn’t sincere? Why are you using her kindness and soft heart?” Li Lan took a deep breath, her voice cold as iron; her gaze was sharp. “You don’t need my approval for everything you do now, is that it?!”

Qian Chu really couldn’t bear such a huge black pot. She said anxiously, “Manager Lan, even if you’ve misunderstood me, that doesn’t matter. But this has to do with your career; it’s your future! Zhu Qing’s presence was originally good for your career, but later she became uncooperative and even wanted to end the agreement early and divorce you. Now that she’s lost her memory, isn’t this just perfect for...”

“Qian Chu,” Li Lan’s voice was full of anger. “You don’t know what state she and I are in, so don’t meddle blindly. This is your first warning and your last. Until Zhu Qing regains her memory, you are not allowed to meet her privately again, and you’re absolutely not allowed to bypass me and discuss anything with her. Do you hear me!”

Qian Chu seldom saw Li Lan truly angry; she knew Li Lan was genuinely furious now, and she felt uneasy, not knowing what else she could say.

Li Lan closed her eyes.

Others didn’t know the real reason she didn’t want Zhu Qing to participate in the variety show.

Qian Chu didn’t know. Qian Cancan didn’t know. And now, Zhu Qing herself didn’t know either.

How could Li Lan not want to go public with Zhu Qing?

The one who didn’t want to was clearly Zhu Qing.

Qian Chu suddenly spoke, her voice a little strange. “Manager Lan, there’s one more thing about Zhu Qing that I need to tell you.”

Li Lan’s emotions settled down. “What is it?”

Qian Chu said quietly, “Qian Cancan seems to be, um, drinking with Zhu Qing at a bar.”

She left out the scene where Zhu Qing seemed to be drinking while dancing and even blew a kiss from afar at some female dancer.

Li Lan said in surprise, “When?”

Qian Chu looked at the timestamp on Qian Cancan’s Moments post, swallowed, and said dryly, “Two minutes ago.”

Li Lan’s just-settled mood jolted again, and her face darkened with looming storm clouds.

-

The return of her “rotten friends” was officially complete, and Qian Cancan went straight from dancing to booking a private room.

Inside the room, the two of them were already drinking themselves crooked. The little girl pouring drinks kept urging them to drink more while signaling to her coworkers to keep opening bottles.

Zhu Qing’s phone, thrown off to the side, lit up and then dimmed again.

“You’re done for. If Li Lan-jie finds out you’re this drunk,” Qian Cancan said, her face flushed with two bizarre red patches, pointing at Zhu Qing and slurring her words, “she’ll definitely look down on you.”

“Huh? Why would she look down on me again?” Zhu Qing’s face had gone pale from drinking. She held one hand on the wine glass, shaking as she spoke with a thick tongue. “Let her look down on me then. What can I do? The moment I woke up, my wife wanted a divorce. What did I do wrong...”

The drink-pouring girl smiled and said, “The wine’s spilled. Come on, let me pour you another glass.”

“Don’t be ungrateful,” Qian Cancan said, not understanding what Zhu Qing was muttering about. She dug out her own “support reconciliation, not separation” nerve and subconsciously tried to talk her down. “Your wife is such a good person. You were the one who took the initiative to go after her back then; she was tormented by you to the point of ending up in the hospital. Afterward, she still didn’t hold it against you and lived with you. How has she wronged you?”

The drink-pouring girl promptly covered her mouth and looked shocked. “Ah, that’s so miserable.”

Zhu Qing’s eyes were red. All she could think about was the moment she’d heard Li Lan say, “We’re not in love.” How was she supposed to be “grateful for what she had”?

“Then who’s wronged me!” Zhu Qing’s confidence faltered a little. “Or who have I wronged? I don’t want to wrong Li Lan. If I did something wrong, I can change it. I really don’t hit people...”

The drink-pouring girls exchanged looks, stunned. She hits people too?!

Zhu Qing finally noticed their little reactions. Bracing herself on the sofa, she sat up straight. “What’s with those faces? Do you think I’m violent? I’m not! I said I’m not!”

Zhu Qing was the delicate sort, especially around the eyes; her eyelids were thin and beautifully shaped, but it was especially obvious when she was drunk. Right now she was glaring with a pair of bloodshot eyes and speaking loudly, and the little girls all shuddered, looking even more afraid.

Qian Cancan thought something was off about Zhu Qing. She crawled across half the sofa, picked up the empty wine bottle beside her, and looked at it twice; then she sat bolt upright in shock. “Are you trying to die? You haven’t drunk for a year, and the second you do, you knock back a jin!”

Just then, Zhu Qing’s phone, which had been nudged under the sofa, lit up again. Qian Cancan saw the caller ID and quickly answered.

On the other end was a pleasant mature woman’s voice, a little urgent. “Xiao Qing?”

“It’s me,” Qian Cancan said, gripping the phone tightly. She glanced at Zhu Qing, who had propped her chin on the wine glass and was wearing a fierce, twisted expression, and swallowed hard. “Aqing is drunk.”

The voice on the other end paused, then quickly steadied. In a low voice, she said, “The private room number.”

After Qian Cancan hung up, she didn’t wonder at all why Li Lan had asked for the private room number instead of the address. She hurriedly sat beside Zhu Qing and urged, “Get up, clean yourself up. Li Lan-jie is coming to pick you up.”

Then she turned to drive the drink-pouring girls away. “All of you, go. Go now.”

The girls looked at one another. Their hungry eyes lingered on the unopened bottles of alcohol, but since Qian Cancan was already chasing them out, they could only stand up slowly.

“I’m not going with her. Anyway, she’s going to divorce me,” Zhu Qing said, all her energy spent on making trouble. She began to huddle up miserably; watery light gathered in the corners of her eyes, and she pouted. “Divorce... sob, she wants to divorce me...”

Qian Cancan could only say stiffly, “Get sober first, then we’ll talk, okay?”

The drink-pouring girls walked out reluctantly.

“Don’t go.” Zhu Qing suddenly grabbed one person’s arm.

The girl startled, but quickly put on a soft smile. “What is it, miss?”

Qian Cancan was so frightened her soul nearly flew out of her body. “What are you doing? Hurry up and let her go. Your wife is about to get here.”

Zhu Qing leaned forward until she was almost face-to-face with the girl, glaring hard at her. “I remember you. You took advantage of the fact that I wasn’t paying attention and secretly opened a bottle of Purple Jasmine. I didn’t drink it, so you have to take it back.”

At this, the girl nearly started crying. A bottle of Purple Jasmine cost two thousand yuan. She’d seen that these two were rich and drunk and thought they hadn’t noticed, so she hurriedly said, “Miss, that was the bottle you wanted opened. We all heard you.”

Seeing her still trying to argue, Zhu Qing grew even angrier.

She had no money right now; that was Li Lan’s money!

The real her was a wage slave making three thousand a month!

How could she possibly let someone swindle her into paying for such an expensive bottle of wine!

“You’re still lying. Come on, let’s go find your manager!” Zhu Qing dragged the person toward the door. Qian Cancan rushed to talk her down, and the remaining hostesses crowded in to persuade her too; the whole scene turned into utter chaos.

Just then, the door suddenly opened.

A tall, straight figure appeared in the doorway.

The other person wore a baseball cap and sunglasses. Curly hair covered both sides of her face, and a mask concealed the lower half of her face completely.

Yet everyone in the room could still feel it: a sharp gaze was sweeping ruthlessly toward them.