Chapter 19

A mirror in the light can flawlessly reproduce colors and shapes, even capturing fleeting emotions.

Like a courtroom, like a lie detector.

Even the most skilled actor, facing a mirror, usually doesn’t want to perform anymore.

After looking at herself in the mirror, Yun Huizhi froze, as if jammed. She slowly undressed and turned on the hot water.

Water vapor escaped outward, leaving trails, fogging up the mirror—the one that made one’s heart pound with fear.

The bright mirror is clear and revealing; the heart within is anxious and unsettled.

Yun Huizhi moved very slowly. This was probably the most sluggish shower she’d taken in a while.

Because there was another person staying in the room. Whether she showered first or second, she always had the illusion of being waited for.

So she never dawdled, racing against time every moment while ensuring she was clean.

Once done, she’d rush out and immediately see what Chu Ruoyou was doing.

Sometimes, Chu Ruoyou was reading on the sofa.

She’d brought a book with her—a classic Russian novel. The character names alone could probably fill half the book.

Yun Huizhi searched it on WeRead, got sleepy after one page. The content was dull, the characters neurotic.

Yet Chu Ruoyou read it with great interest.

Sometimes, Chu Ruoyou also binged shows. She didn’t watch romantic themes. She said idol dramas and romance films were genres she couldn’t appreciate.

Yun Huizhi said for many people, romance was a beauty to be appreciated, a gift from God.

Chu Ruoyou was immune. She said, “I don’t believe in God, nor do I know how to appreciate it.”

Other times, Chu Ruoyou did nothing—just mulled over thoughts in bed or played on her phone.

Hearing sounds, she wouldn’t even acknowledge them. So self-absorbed, yet so charming. Yun Huizhi liked that about her.

But tonight, Yun Huizhi wasn’t planning to rush out to see her.

She tried to kill time, even considering sleeping in the bathtub all night.

At dinner, when asked what kind of person she liked, Yun Huizhi deliberately avoided matching Chu Ruoyou’s personality. She didn’t want to make her awkward or invite scorn.

But she believed Chu Ruoyou had answered the question seriously. The type Chu Ruoyou described was indeed more suitable for her.

Her ex-husband was probably that kind of person.

But that didn’t matter either. Who she liked, who she didn’t—it seemed not to matter.

Yun Huizhi wasn’t disappointed because of that. Her feelings hadn’t reached that stage yet.

What truly disappointed her was Chu Ruoyou’s unequivocal refusal to treat her to a meal back in Xiacheng.

She didn’t even want to be friends.

She wasn’t nostalgic at all.

Can’t we stay in touch, and if later there’s a chance to visit each other’s cities, just have a meal together?

Of course not.

Yun Huizhi knew it better than anyone.

But tonight, on a sudden whim, she’d wanted to ask. The moment the thought appeared out of nowhere, her body’s reaction had already told her: Don’t open your mouth, or you’ll be asking for trouble.

She asked anyway.

And thus, as expected, she brought upon herself Chu Ruoyou’s mockery and refusal, leaving her utterly ashamed.

She knew pestering someone was very irrational. If the roles were reversed—meeting someone she didn’t like, intending just a casual fling, only for the other person to break the rules and relentlessly pursue her…

That would be annoying too.

No, super incredibly annoying.

Yun Huizhi made a firm resolution: she would never ask such a stupid question again.

It scared people away and plunged herself into unnecessary negative emotions.

But the future was the future; today’s ruined good mood couldn’t be restored in a short while.

She could only hide and sigh in frustration.

She didn’t blame Chu Ruoyou one bit. She was only annoyed at herself for being so stupid, so pitifully dumb.

But she also didn’t regret asking tonight. Just ask if you want to. What’s the worst that could happen?

She just had a bit of a crush on Chu Ruoyou. Was just craving a meal of crawfish from her.

Otherwise, it felt kind of suffocating.

Now that she’d asked and gotten her answer, her heart was dead. That was good.

After showering, brushing her teeth, and applying a cleansing mask, Yun Huizhi leaned against the vanity and fiddled with her phone.

Just as her mood finally improved a little, Chu Ruoyou’s transfer damn well came at the worst possible time.

1000 yuan—two hundred extra.

Yun Huizhi was instantly furious. She’d already said this meal was her treat! Why did she still send it?

Her anger burned for only two seconds before fizzling out. What was the use of anger? Who would she vent it on?

She couldn’t afford to be generous to win a woman’s favor now. After all, the persona she’d built was that of a broke small-town girl sacrificing herself for tuition fees, in order to earn Chu Ruoyou’s money.

She delayed accepting the transfer. A sudden impulse surged in her heart.

She would confess to Chu Ruoyou. Say she was joking from the start. Say she didn’t lack money. Return all the swindled money.

But in a flash, she abandoned the thought.

If she confessed, Chu Ruoyou would probably leave Jianjia immediately.

The reason Chu Ruoyou had agreed to come in the first place was precisely because she asked for money. By Jianjia Town’s cost of living, the price she’d demanded wasn’t low.

Pricier things on the surface often put people at ease. They knew you were asking for a lot and that you only needed that much.

Cheap or free things usually hid huge traps behind them.

Once she said she didn’t want the money, Chu Ruoyou would definitely worry she wanted something else. She’d end this relationship no matter what, never talking to her again.

She might even get angry and scold her fiercely—this kind of bored, pathetic person.

Likewise, precisely because she’d asked for money upfront and easily slept with Chu Ruoyou, in Chu Ruoyou’s eyes, she was no longer someone worth befriending.

Chu Ruoyou might often think that she’d perhaps accompanied many others like this before.

It was already good enough that Chu Ruoyou didn’t look down on her. Did she really expect Chu Ruoyou to stay with her forever?

In the few minutes Yun Huizhi agonized and fretted, Chu Ruoyou sent another message asking, “Not done yet? You’ve taken twenty minutes more than usual. Feeling unwell somewhere?”

So she’d actually noticed how long her showers usually took. This made Yun Huizhi pathetically feel a bit better.

“No.”

Yun Huizhi replied, then accepted the transfer.

Then just take the money and be the obedient contractor little sister. Continue being reckless, squandering this time.

Since the lie had already begun, she’d see it through to the end.

Yun Huizhi prepared to be carefree. First rule: don’t be the one who can’t handle the game.

That would be too foolish. Maybe it was because she’d never had this kind of relationship before and lacked experience.

That initial “self-recommendation” had truly been a spur-of-the-moment thing.

With a normal expression, she pushed the door open. Chu Ruoyou was doing yoga on her mat.

When Chu Ruoyou twisted sideways and looked up, the line of her fair neck was exceptionally alluring. Her profile was slender but not fragile, possessing a kind of restrained, powerful grace.

A beauty catching the eye. In this instant, Yun Huizhi felt a great sense of relief. Her mood quickly lifted.

She’d been a bit dejected tonight after being rebuffed. Once dejected, one tends to overthink, complicating matters.

The dejection was because she’d rarely suffered setbacks in this area. She couldn’t blame herself for being narcissistic and confident—all her past experiences told her that being liked by others was a simple thing.

So being refused tonight made her lose face, hence the unhappiness. This bit of sadness had nothing to do with real feelings.

She figured she wasn’t a deeply passionate person. Fleeting infatuations happened often.

She had just been mesmerized by beauty.

Chu Ruoyou was good-looking. Yun Huizhi had originally thought her own pure and pretty looks were unbeatable.

But now she saw that rich, vibrant beauty was even more overwhelming, hitting the heart like a timpani drum.

Yun Huizhi noticed that when Zhang Cai, Wen Zi, and the others talked, their gazes all rested on Chu Ruoyou’s face.

That was unconscious, pure appreciation.

Everyone liked looking at beautiful women.

Before meeting Chu Ruoyou in person, seeing her photo had already made her heart race. Back then, could she have fallen for an unseen “Swimming in the Void”?

Impossible. It was just lust.

After meeting, spending days and nights together, intimate without barriers, without any other conflicts, it was always very pleasant.

Beauty bewitches, coupled with mindless revelry and indulgence, making her mistakenly think it was true emotion.

But true emotion wasn’t that easy to come by.

She hadn’t liked someone with Chu Ruoyou’s personality before. Though it was because she hadn’t met this type, she also didn’t yearn to possess someone like this.

From this, it was clear she didn’t have a “must-have” ambition towards Chu Ruoyou, just a passing fancy.

This was truly too childish. And Chu Ruoyou had seen through her childishness, thus clearly refusing.

But she didn’t point it out directly, didn’t find it annoying, and even took care of her feelings.

This proved Chu Ruoyou absolutely didn’t dislike her.

Straightening out her thoughts, Yun Huizhi suddenly laughed with clarity.

Since I’m just greedy for her beauty, then just enjoy it at ease. Don’t stir up any extra trouble.

“What are you grinning foolishly about?” Chu Ruoyou looked at her.

Yun Huizhi’s mouth ran. “As soon as I came out, I saw Ms. Chu’s peerless beauty. So beautiful, like Chang’e descending to earth, like Xi Shi reincarnated.”

“?” Chu Ruoyou was calm but confused.

Yun Huizhi threw caution to the wind. “Who told you to give me two hundred extra, Older Sister? I absolutely love it. I’ve decided to properly compliment you.”

“Oh, I see.”

Chu Ruoyou detected a hint of sarcasm but didn’t want to delve deep, so she brushed it off.

Yun Huizhi sat on the bed’s edge, swinging her legs. “Do you want to go see the moon?”

Chu Ruoyou stood nearby, tilting her head back to drink water. “Didn’t you get bitten a bunch on your legs last night? Let’s not.”

“Then what should we do?”

Chu Ruoyou said, “Sleep early. We have to wake up early tomorrow.”

“But we slept too long during the day. I’m not sleepy at all.”

“What to do if you’re not sleepy?”

Chu Ruoyou handed the cup to Yun Huizhi, then pulled it back just as Yun Huizhi was about to take it.

“Oh, right. You shouldn’t drink too much water at night.”

Yun Huizhi wasn’t going to be outdone. “And you can drink a lot of water at night?”

Easy to wet the bed, right?

Chu Ruoyou shot her a sidelong glare and walked around to the other side to get into bed. “If you don’t sleep, I’m going to sleep.”

Yun Huizhi turned around. “You remember you told me the payment is settled daily, right?”

Chu Ruoyou slowly “Mhm”-ed.

“You paid me today, but we still haven’t…”

“Yun Huizhi.”

Chu Ruoyou quickly caught on and cut her off in time. “Don’t say vulgar things.”

“Alright then, I’ll be gentle. Very gentle. Come on.”

She pounced on Chu Ruoyou. She wanted to freely have a taste of Chu Ruoyou, thinking of nothing else, just being a lecher.

But she couldn’t stop in time and fell, her forehead bumping into Chu Ruoyou’s nose. An instant face-slap.

This is your gentleness?”

She heard Chu Ruoyou’s weak voice.