Chapter 32

Shu Chi was a bit stunned as well. She looked up, rereading the question on the digital board several times, then glanced at Jing Yuqi, who was laughing with infuriating smugness.

Jing Yuqi was bobbing her head, her earrings glittering under the lights. Shu Chi felt she currently looked no different from when she used to dominate the dance halls back in the day.

The woman said: “Then let’s have five girls. Along with Shu Chi, and that Little Zhang next to Ding Ya.”

In the previous rounds, most Dares involved drinking a shot with mustard, a minor electric shock, or acting cutesy and flirting with the person next to you.

The challenge Ding Ya had drawn needed quite a few people.

Jing Yuqi’s current expression was truly too much. Even Shu Chi, whose heart usually remained as still as water, had to suspect there was something fishy about this scene.

“Go on, everyone line up in a row.”

The planner came over and handed an eye mask to Ding Ya, specifically showing everyone it was completely opaque.

People nearby were still chattering: “Just touching hands is way too boring!”

“Well then, should we at least cover their hands?”

“Haha, then what’s the point of the blindfold? Are you dumb?”

“Honestly, this activity is super cheesy, but I’m cheesy too. As long as it’s not me, it’s fine!”

…

There were six people total. Shu Chi was the tallest among them. There were employees from her company and Ding Ya’s company.

Ding Ya put on the eye mask and was spun around a few times. She swayed a little as she walked over.

Jing Yuqi was still recording a video.

Ding Ya’s hands were very small. She reached out first to touch the hand of the first person, a colleague from Ying Qixin’s department. The girl was slightly plump, and her hand was fleshy.

Ding Ya shook her head.

To find Shu Chi was actually very simple. Ding Ya had touched her hand before.

The planner next to them was still reminding, probably deliberately emphasizing: “No touching other areas.”

Jing Yuqi was also fanning the flames: “A little touch here and there wouldn’t hurt.”

Shu Chi endured it. She shot Jing Yuqi a look.

Jing Yuqi wasn’t afraid of her at all. She winked and mouthed at her to seize the opportunity.

The indoor heating was very strong. Shu Chi wore a thin fleece shirt in an almond color.

Her natural skin tone wasn’t fair. When buying foundation, “natural skin tone” might actually brighten her complexion. The row of female colleagues all wore makeup, ranging from cool fair to warm fair skin tones. Reaching Shu Chi was like placing a color swatch in the wrong sequence.

Fortunately, the overhead lighting was very flattering. Shu Chi’s shirt collar wasn’t buttoned to the top, revealing a silver chain around her neck.

Ding Ya couldn’t see, but everyone else suddenly realized at this moment that Wellpond’s Second Boss wasn’t bad-looking either.

Standing with Jing Yuqi, she was a bit like a shadow. Yet under the lights, she held a different kind of appeal. That hint of fierceness became an adornment to her appearance—like a unique facial decoration.

Ding Ya moved on to feel the hand of the second person.

The second was a Wellpond employee, the operations person who had liaised with Ding Ya. Her hand was relatively slender and long, nails done with press-ons, a bit long.

Ding Ya shook her head the moment she touched them.

The third person was Ding Ya’s other intern. The young girl was a little nervous.

As a supervisor, Ding Ya could be quite strict, but the intern had genuinely learned a lot under her. Ultimately, positional authority held sway, and no matter how approachable Ding Ya might be at private gatherings, the girl subconsciously held her breath.

Her hand was even trembling slightly.

Ding Ya laughed: “Little Xie, what are you afraid of? I’m the one blindfolded, remember.”

Everyone laughed.

Ying Qixin’s voice, woven into the laughter, complained: “This is way too easy.”

She figured with Shu Chi being so tall and her hands big, the others were ruled out immediately.

The next was Shu Chi.

Ding Ya’s height was already among the shorter ones in the group. There were others around her height, but their faces looked more mature, giving an impression of a different stature altogether.

The moment Ding Ya touched the hand, she knew it was Shu Chi’s.

But she didn’t say so. Instead, she confirmed it meticulously.

Jing Yuqi stood to the side, watching Ding Ya’s small, child-like hands grasp Shu Chi’s hand with both of hers.

The contrast in skin tone and texture was starkly evident under the lights, and it even appeared somewhat intimate.

Her understanding of lesbians wasn’t deep, but she’d encountered plenty in that circle, and many stereotypes had been shattered.

For example, the height/size difference used to belong exclusively to heterosexual imagination. Or the terms of address between women—no need to designate who’s “wife.” Jing Yuqi even knew a pair of models, all kinds of nicknames, some sounded quite wild.

Shu Chi, this person, was too quiet. Her quiet wasn’t like the bookish quiet of a designer Jing Yuqi had collaborated with before.

She had no educational foundation, her education level wasn’t high. What supported Shu Chi’s bones were the frosts and hardships of society over these years. A body driven by financial and familial burdens, as if born solely to sacrifice for her family’s well.

Thankfully, Shu Chi hadn’t followed the path of her two older sisters. She might have grasped something different, might want to find herself.

But the question of “what is the self” was embedded in her very blood and bones, giving Shu Chi a kind of lostness that clashed with the sense of security she exuded in her work.

This lostness invited tender affection. It was a charm distinct from her physical stature.

It was a pity Jing Yuqi wasn’t in that line of work, and Shu Chi was just her friend. She truly hoped someone could lift this black feather that was Shu Chi, keep her from dissipating.

Ding Ya’s hands were tiny but very warm. Everyone had extended their right hand; Ding Ya could answer with a single touch.

This time, she held Shu Chi’s hand with both hands, feeling it over and over.

The black eye mask was too large, almost covering half her face. Shu Chi looked down, seeing only the other’s pink, tender lips and cheeks illuminated enough to reveal the fine, downy hairs.

She seemed so… earnest.

Can she really not recognize me?

The warmth of palms and the back of hands overlapping made Shu Chi deeply uncomfortable.

She knew nothing of intimacy. She was used to being alone. A handshake was a relatively routine social courtesy.

She had held hands with Ding Ya before, but never like this—under so many people’s watch, Ding Ya’s touch seemed to trace Shu Chi’s hand, as if measuring the size of Shu Chi’s heart.

Ding Ya’s pinky finger hooked lightly against Shu Chi’s palm. Her fingertips brushed over the thin calluses on Shu Chi’s hand and the scars on the back. Just as an inexplicable itch arose from somewhere unknown within Shu Chi, threatening to become unbearable, Ding Ya laughed.

“This is Shu Chi.”

She lifted Shu Chi’s hand and turned around.

Jing Yuqi was very disappointed: “There really was no challenge, was there? I was quite looking forward to a penalty.”

The people below started clamoring again.

Ding Ya reached up to remove the eye mask, but Shu Chi helped her take it off.

Jing Yuqi came up with another devious idea: “Then let the correctly identified Boss Shu pick a Dare!”

This was completely indiscriminate attack now. Everyone present could see it was Jing Yuqi settling a personal score.

But no one would spoil the fun at an occasion like this. The atmosphere was already a riotous frenzy. Even Shu Chi, who had a naturally unapproachable face, understood the need to go with the flow.

She helplessly chose one.

Jing Yuqi: “We request our very own Boss Shu Chi to emotionally and expressively recite the following lines! I won’t read it, everyone appreciate it on your own, haha.”

Jing Yuqi was laughing so hard her eyeliner was about to fly off. Ding Ya returned to her spot and glanced at it, feeling it was utterly cheesy too.

On the other hand, she understood the joy of bullying an honest person. A smooth-talker reciting this stuff would be completely boring. But having someone as taciturn as Shu Chi read out a whole act-cute compendium… that was pure entertainment gold.

Shu Chi’s refusal was written all over her face.

Jing Yuqi: “Old Shu! Show our Wellpond corporate culture! Self-improvement, fear no hardship!”

She said it with such righteous fervor. Ding Ya quietly asked Zhang Xi, who was pouring her more corn juice, “Is that the culture?”

Zhang Xi shook her head. “Boss is making it up.”

Our corporate culture is clearly: Just do it.

Very bandit-like. Completely opposite to our clean, minimalist branding.

Shu Chi looked at the chest-thumping cutesy lines on the electronic board with a face full of indescribable reluctance. She stood rooted to the spot for about two minutes.

Jing Yuqi whined: “Alright then! How about this: you say it to me, or you can pick someone yourself.”

Ying Qixin, ever the troublemaker: “Say it to Ding Ya! After all, Ding Ya was the one who found Boss Shu just now.”

Ding Ya feigned a polite refusal: “That’s not good, is it? I think it’s more in the spirit of Dare to say it for everyone to see.”

Shu Chi: “Then I’ll say it to Ding Ya.”

Ding Ya, in a display of refusal-that-accepts, covered her face: “Oh, that’s not very appropriate.”

Jing Yuqi: “Perfect! Shu Chi, get ready. I’m counting down now.”

She thought to herself: I’ve pushed this hard, even an iron tree should blossom by now. It’s just dating, is it really that hard?

Shu Chi was completely oblivious that Jing Yuqi was doing this for her own good.

In that instant, she wished she were still mute.

Ding Ya’s faked shyness meant she didn’t meet Shu Chi’s eyes, staring sideways at her own glass instead.

The event planner also told her to turn around.

Shu Chi braced one hand on the table and, with extreme reluctance, started—

“Hen… Hmph…”

One syllable nearly choked her to death. The moment she made a sound, she could already hear people around laughing.

Ding Ya looked at her, struggling to keep a straight face.

Shu Chi kept her head down, not daring to look at her. Jing Yuqi poured fuel on the fire: “Head down means a redo.”

Shu Chi looked up, very perfunctorily, but met Ding Ya’s smiling eyes. She seemed to forget the words, glancing at the cue card again.

“It’s… it’s all your fault.” She licked her lips. Ding Ya could even see Shu Chi’s lips trembling. She wore no lipstick; her natural lip color was a bit dark. “Al… also not…”

She closed her eyes, an expression of utter, dead despair on her face.

Jing Yuqi was nearly dying of laughter; her hand recording the video was shaking.

Shu Chi looked at Ding Ya, then dropped her gaze again, forcing out the last part in a murmur: “…Coax… coax me.”

It was just so jarringly out of place. A line like this, on Ding Ya’s face, might not have been so bizarre.

Shu Chi’s face flushed red. She felt it was even a bit hot. More exaggerated than that time at the annual meeting when she’d drawn dancing with Jing Yuqi.

So embarrassing.

Jing Yuqi: “Hurry up! Quick death, sooner reincarnation!”

Shu Chi looked at the electronic board again. In her peripheral vision, Ding Ya was biting her lip, looking like she was holding back laughter with great difficulty.

Shu Chi took a deep breath and continued: “I reeeally want… want to cry…”

“Herself”… The words “cutesy” coming out of this face… it didn’t evoke the slightest bit of coyness. More like she might genuinely hit someone the next second.

Another wave of roaring laughter.

Ding Ya had even leaned in specifically to savor the other’s embarrassment.

Today, she wore a pinafore dress underneath, a white pearl-knit collar wrapping around her neck. The pinafore’s neckline ended right at her chest, cinched very tightly at the waist. Maybe Ding Ya wore a corset today; it made her chest look full and her waist tiny. Ying Qixin hollered strangely: “Ding Ya, lean in a little closer!”

Ding Ya turned her head: “You talk too much.”

Shu Chi averted her eyes and didn’t comply either, attempting to read the next words with a deadpan expression: “You are so… so mean…”

Words meant to be dripping with wavy intonation were read like a funeral eulogy. Ding Ya watched Shu Chi blink more rapidly from nervousness, her gaze growing more intent.

“Want a hug! Hmph! Ying… yingying?”

Jing Yuqi was about to double over from laughter. Any other person, and the comedic effect wouldn’t have been half as vivid.

Shu Chi’s brow was furrowed, completely unconnected to acting cute. She looked like a duck being driven onto a perch, with only the plucking left to endure.

Shu Chi read the last line incredibly fast, probably speaking at a speed she’d never used in her life.

The moment she finished, she gulped down a mouthful from her glass, only to discover her Sprite had been replaced—Jing Yuqi had poured in white liquor.

Shu Chi: …

Jing Yuqi hollered: “Excellent! A round of applause for everyone!”

The group was laughing so hard they were falling over each other. The atmosphere was thoroughly heated up, and the next round’s scale was even wilder.

Ding Ya received the video sent by Jing Yuqi with deep satisfaction. Faced with the other’s dog-head emoji, she very naturally replied with a nodding sticker.

Those in the know, knew.

The one who didn’t know was still Shu Chi.

After clearing the obstacle that was “herself,” Ding Ya still needed a chance to buffer.

Get closer to Shu Chi. Then, bite by bite, eat her up. Slowly, with lingering pleasure, just like Shu Chi eating that Black Forest cake.

In the second half of the game, Shu Chi was visibly more silent. Perhaps related to that cup of white liquor; even her face had gone red.

Ding Ya leaned over and asked her: “Are you okay?”

Shu Chi waved her hand. This little alcohol couldn’t get her drunk, but the proof was indeed high, giving her a slight dizziness.

Ding Ya: “Do you want to go wash your face?”

Shu Chi made an “mm” sound.

Just as she was about to stand, Ding Ya grabbed her hand. “Want me to go with you?”

Shu Chi’s hand was very hot. The alcohol surged within her. She closed her eyes and said, “No need.”

It sounded a bit like her tone during that earlier prank.

Ding Ya laughed, tilted her head, and teased in a whisper: “Is Boss Shu acting coquettish?”