“I’m already married,” Liang Shi said. “I’ll take on the responsibilities that come with it.”
She looked at Qiu Zimin. “So, stop trying to control me.”
The car pulled away from the ancestral villa.
Qiu Zimin stood at the entrance, clutching her coat, eyes blazing with fury.
A long moment later, Qiu Zimin spat through gritted teeth: “Worthless.”
Liang Shi arrived back at Chuanlan Villa past nine o’clock.
Xu Qingya was sitting in the living room playing a game. When she saw Liang Shi come in, she looked up and gave a greeting.
“Where’s your sister?” Liang Shi asked.
Xu Qingya said: “Still sleeping.”
She stood up and headed for her room. “Sister Liang, I’m going back to my room.”
“Okay.” Liang Shi nodded.
She first went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Coming back out, she looked at the living room and thought the color scheme here was far more pleasant to the eye. That room in the ancestral home made her spine go cold just looking at it.
She spaced out downstairs for a while before going back to the room.
Xu Qingzhu still hadn’t woken. She’d been sleeping for a very long time.
Liang Shi took a shower in the room. While waiting for her hair to dry, she played a casual game on her phone. Later, too tired, she lay down and fell asleep before her hair was fully dry.
She didn’t sleep deeply, probably shaken by the decor of the original host’s bedroom during the day.
She actually dreamed of a coffin.
In the pitch-black night, a coffin flew back and forth while paper money drifted through the sky.
And a Daoist priest pressed a talisman against her forehead, startling her awake.
Her eyes flew open, only to meet a pair of bright eyes.
It scared Liang Shi so badly her heart nearly stopped. Then she realized it was Xu Qingzhu.
She let out a soft breath, her voice a little hoarse. “What are you doing?”
“Did you have a nightmare?” Xu Qingzhu asked.
Liang Shi nodded. “Did you touch my face?”
Xu Qingzhu turned her face away, looking at Liang Shi’s forehead, her voice as cool as ever. “No.”
Then she got out of bed.
“How long did I sleep?” she asked.
Liang Shi answered: “A full day and night.”
“Where’s Weiwei?”
“Zhao Xuning went to pick her up. She should be fine.” Liang Shi reached over and turned on the bedside lamp, then checked her phone. It was already past eleven.
She’d slept briefly. The dream had been so vivid that she had no drowsiness left.
“Last night…” Xu Qingzhu paused, then rephrased in a gentler tone: “Did anything happen?”
Liang Shi shook her head immediately. “No. Nothing at all.”
Then Liang Shi suddenly realized: “You don’t remember anything?”
Xu Qingzhu frowned slightly and answered honestly: “My memory stops after I downed a big glass of baijiu.”
Liang Shi: “…”
Well then. A blackout drinker.
“You don’t remember anything? Not even fragments?” Liang Shi didn’t know what she was hoping for.
After all, last night’s Xu Qingzhu had been a delight. If she remembered, it would be one hell of an awkward situation.
“No.” Xu Qingzhu pressed her fingertips against her temples. “Was it you who brought me out of there last night?”
“Me and Zhao Xuning.” Liang Shi didn’t claim credit. “Zhao Xuning got someone to open the private room’s door.”
Honestly, at that moment, Liang Shi had felt utterly useless, unable to do anything.
But thinking about it more carefully later, her world and this one were completely different. She hadn’t fully integrated into this world yet.
And someone like the original host, who was utterly alone the moment trouble struck… facing a challenge of this caliber was simply too much.
She just hoped nothing like that would ever happen again.
“Thank you.” Xu Qingzhu lowered her head in a small nod, then sat on one side of the bed, spacing out.
She was still wearing the same clothes from before.
A camisole and pants, reeking of alcohol.
After a moment, she seemed to come to a realization. “I’m going to take a shower.”
Liang Shi asked: “Are you hungry?”
Xu Qingzhu walked to the bathroom door and paused, considering: “Is it a hassle to cook right now?”
“The servants are probably all asleep,” Xu Qingzhu said. “I’m not too hungry…”
Before she could finish, her stomach growled loudly.
Xu Qingzhu flushed with embarrassment. Liang Shi chuckled. “It’s fine. I didn’t eat much for dinner either. I’ll make something simple and we can eat together.”
“You know how to cook?” Xu Qingzhu raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Liang Shi nodded. “A little.”
“Alright,” Xu Qingzhu said. “Sorry for the trouble.”
“Then you go ahead and shower. I’ll bring it up when it’s done,” Liang Shi said. “Your sister’s still downstairs. Don’t want to wake her.”
Xu Qingzhu was surprised by her thoughtfulness but welcomed it. “Okay, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Liang Shi gave her the space and went downstairs to make noodles.
Relatively speaking, noodles were the simplest thing to make and well suited for someone who’d just woken up after a long sleep.
Upstairs, Xu Qingzhu looked for her phone before getting in the shower. It was fully charged, though it had been at only forty percent when she’d left last night. Liang Shi must have charged it for her.
She did these little thoughtful things all the time.
Like how Xu Qingzhu had just noticed: Liang Shi had been sleeping right on the edge of the bed, in a space just wide enough for her body. One careless move and she’d fall off.
Even though there was so much empty space on the bed.
And when she went to cook, she didn’t say it was just for Xu Qingzhu. She said she was hungry too and would make extra, which greatly reduced any sense of indebtedness.
Xu Qingzhu held her phone, lost in thought for a moment, then called Bai Weiwei. The phone was switched off.
She called Zhao Xuning. The line was busy.
Neither of them answered.
Xu Qingzhu sent Zhao Xuning a text: 【Is Weiwei okay? Did anything happen? Please contact me as soon as you have news.】
Then she went to shower.
That night, she’d gone to Huayue International after receiving Bai Weiwei’s text.
She knew it wasn’t a good place. Liang Shi and Cheng Ran used to go there often. But the message Bai Weiwei had sent that day was: 【Come quick! Emergency!】
She hadn’t thought much of it and went straight there. She found Bai Weiwei sitting there drinking with investors, who were equally surprised to see her arrive. When they compared notes, they realized Bai Weiwei had never sent that message.
One of the bosses admitted he’d used Bai Weiwei’s phone to message Xu Qingzhu. He’d long heard that Haizhou’s Top Omega looked like a celestial beauty but had never had the chance to meet her. So he’d seized the opportunity to invite her out for a drink.
The moment Bai Weiwei heard this, she panicked and tried to pull Xu Qingzhu away.
Bai Weiwei was something of a socialite herself. Her family wasn’t fabulously wealthy, but they ran a tech company and never wanted for anything. She’d become a talent agent after graduation because she genuinely loved the industry. Her temper flared up, and she started arguing with the man.
A crowd around them jumped in to mediate.
There were other female Omegas at the gathering besides Bai Weiwei and Xu Qingzhu, and the people present were all big names in the industry, so Bai Weiwei didn’t make a scene.
But their drinking games were next-level. They started a drinking game, originally saying they’d play two rounds and then leave. But Bai Weiwei’s luck was terrible and she was out after one round. Xu Qingzhu fared a bit better but didn’t make it past the second round.
She’d never been good at drinking to begin with. On top of that, she’d just come off her heat period and her body was in a fragile state. It was easy to get drunk.
Especially since when she got drunk, she blacked out completely, remembering absolutely nothing.
She hadn’t thought much of it. She even guessed that her outer clothes had been taken off by Liang Shi after she’d thrown up on them from drinking too much.
She didn’t find anything wrong with that.
When she came out of the shower, Liang Shi was already back in the room, and the aroma of noodles hung in the air.
She glanced at it. It looked quite presentable.
Two big bowls with the perfect ratio of noodles to broth. A layer of golden oil floated on the surface, and chopped green onions were scattered over the noodles. It looked appetizing.
Liang Shi handed her the chopsticks. “It’s nothing fancy. We’ll eat something better tomorrow morning. You shouldn’t eat too much right now anyway.”
Xu Qingzhu took them. “Thank you.”
Liang Shi was genuinely hungry. She hadn’t eaten much at lunch or dinner.
In the stifling atmosphere of the Liang household, it was hard to keep food down.
Now, holding a bowl of steaming noodles, every craving in her stomach was awakened.
The room fell quiet. Even though both were famished, neither slurped. They ate unhurriedly, finishing in silence.
Near the end, Xu Qingzhu noticed two poached eggs sitting in the broth. She bit into one; the yolk was just barely set, not dry or chalky at all.
She looked at Liang Shi. “Did you make yourself eggs too?”
“No,” Liang Shi said. “I had some this morning. I’ve got my nutrition covered. Don’t need more.”
“So you gave me your portion?” Xu Qingzhu said.
Liang Shi smiled. “Of course not. They’re all yours.”
Xu Qingzhu finished everything in her bowl. Sated, she pulled a tissue and dabbed her lips.
The tissue grazed those vivid red lips as she looked at Liang Shi. “How come you suddenly know how to cook?”
Liang Shi: “…”
Here we go again.
These two sisters used the exact same playbook.
The younger one fished; the elder one probed.
Liang Shi smiled. “Cooking is the simplest thing in the world. Anyone with hands can do it.”
Xu Qingzhu pretended to come to a sudden understanding, drawing out her words: “Ohhh~”
Liang Shi got up to clear the dishes, but Xu Qingzhu pressed her back down. “You cooked. I’ll clean up.”
“No need. You just got over being sick. Let me,” Liang Shi said. “Zhao Xuning said you need to rest. If you don’t recover properly and end up back in the hospital, Zhao Xuning will beat me up.”
Xu Qingzhu found this amusing. “Is she really that scary?”
Liang Shi nodded. “Very.”
She cleaned up quickly, loaded everything into the downstairs dishwasher, and hurried back upstairs.
Xu Qingzhu was changing the bed sheets.
Liang Shi helped, and once it was done, said: “Could you get me a blanket? I don’t know where they’re kept. That’s why I slept on the bed last night.”
Xu Qingzhu blinked, puzzled. “This is your room. Your bed. It’s perfectly natural for you to sleep here. You don’t need to explain to me.”
Liang Shi: “…”
That… actually made sense.
But the system made her humble.
“It’s fine,” Liang Shi said. “I’m an Alpha. I’ll sleep on the floor. You take the bed. For as long as your sister is here, it’ll be like this.”
Xu Qingzhu moved deftly with the sheets, tossing the dirty ones into the hamper as she spoke. “We already discussed this before. You take the bed.”
Liang Shi shook her head. “I can’t do that. You just recovered. How can I let you sleep on the floor…”
Xu Qingzhu stood across the bed and looked at Liang Shi openly and frankly. “Who said I was sleeping on the floor?”
Liang Shi: “…?”
Before she could process what Xu Qingzhu meant, a mechanical voice chimed in her mind:
【Ding dong! Congratulations, host. You have accumulated 20 luck points. Reward: ten thousand yuan, to be deposited within ten minutes.
Additionally, you have triggered a passive quest: Watch a movie with Xu Qingzhu.
Note: Completing the passive quest will reduce your currently accumulated bad luck value. Failure will result in a deduction of 1-3 luck points at the system’s discretion.】
