Chapter 3: The Film Empress’s Suicide Jump (3)

The door to the room was ajar, cracked open just a sliver.

As Bai Qian stepped one foot inside, a woman’s delicate voice floated out from within.

Unlike on the phone, it now carried a hint of softness, laced with thick coquettish anger. “Why are you only coming now? This is the first time I’ve ever waited for someone this long!”

She chuckled in disbelief. “How did you know it would definitely be me coming in?”

“Besides you, no one would dare come up without my permission.”

While they spoke, she had already entered the room.

A trail of water marks stretched across the floor from the bathroom door all the way to the bedside. Combined with Shao Zizhi’s long hair, still obviously damp and scattered about, it wasn’t hard to guess that she’d taken another bath while waiting for her to arrive.

A soft down comforter covered most of the woman’s body. What caught the eye was the expanse of skin peeking from beneath her lustrous hair and the silk nightgown—snowy and delicate, glowing with a faint rosy sheen. Her exquisite collarbones were adorned with clusters of seductive, bewitching red roses.

Bai Qian deliberately averted her gaze, yet she could still catch the faint scent of body wash wafting from the other woman.

This fragrance was all too familiar. She’d breathed it in up close all night last night, and even stroked it across something exquisitely smooth and fine.

Shao Zizhi’s voice interrupted her untimely erotic reverie. “You still haven’t answered me—why did it take you so long to get here? I’ve been waiting almost an hour! I had someone check; your place isn’t that far away!”

Bai Qian, carrying her things, walked over to stand beside her. “The bus was delayed. I had to wait a while.”

“You came to see me by bus? Why didn’t you take a cab? Why won’t you look at me? Feeling guilty now, are we? Too late, Bai Qian—I’m telling you!”

Bai Qian’s gaze darted evasively, still refusing to meet her eyes as she explained herself. “Cabs cost money; I didn’t see the need. I said I’d come find you, and here I am. You have my number—if you were that impatient, you would’ve called again. Since I didn’t get another call, I figured you weren’t in that big a hurry.”

“Sophistry! Whatever, I’m not quibbling over that now. Do you know why I called you here? Bai Qian! Have some manners—I’m talking to you! Why won’t you look at me!”

Even the Little Princess’s angry voice came out all soft and wheedling, far from grating on the ears.

Bai Qian sighed and casually set the breakfast she’d brought on the bedside table.

Just as Shao Zizhi had hoped, she glanced sideways at her, leaned in close—and as the other woman’s earlobes flushed visibly red, she gripped the edges of the comforter at her thighs and pulled it all the way up.

Shao Zizhi was now covered right up to her head, only her face poking out.

Puzzled by Bai Qian’s inexplicable action, she reached out to tug the comforter back down. “What are you doing? It’s the middle of summer—I’m not cold!”

Bai Qian pinned her hand in place, her eyes dark as the depths of the ocean. In a flat voice, she said, “You’re cold.”

“I’m not cold! Are you crazy, Bai Qian?!”

Unfazed by the scolding, her expression unchanged, Bai Qian freed one hand to pick up the small wontons she’d gotten to-go from the breakfast shop. “Hungry? Eat something first. Once your stomach’s full, we can talk about last night.”

Shao Zizhi immediately stopped tussling with her over the comforter, the flush at her earlobes spreading further.

She mumbled, her voice unconsciously softening into a coquettish whine. “Fine then. You didn’t ask the boss to add green onions, did you? I don’t eat onions—they taste awful.”

Bai Qian paused in the middle of untying the bag. “They did. A full heaping spoonful.”

“…”

The Little Princess wheedled, “Then go buy me another bowl. I’m hungry now.”

A bowl of wontons cost eight yuan, and Bai Qian was so broke these days she wanted to split every single yuan in half to make it last. She didn’t agree, instead untying the bag the rest of the way and beginning to fish out the chopped green onions floating on the surface of the soup with the spoon.

“Wait a sec. I’ll pick out the onions and give it to you.”

Shao Zizhi’s gaze involuntarily fixed on the woman’s fair, slender hands. It was the most ordinary action imaginable, yet she made it look both breathtakingly beautiful and utterly captivating.

Just as the last bits of onion were about to vanish from the bowl, she couldn’t help blurting out, “My dad used to pick onions for my mom like this too. You look exactly like he did back then, Bai Qian. Don’t tell me you’ve already fallen for me?”

Bai Qian’s hand jerked, sending a dribble of broth spilling over the bowl’s rim into the trash bin—but the woman didn’t notice and pressed on. “Thinking back now, your reactions yesterday were pretty quick, weren’t they? My memories of last night aren’t super clear, but I can say for sure that when I took that drink, you weren’t anywhere nearby. And I went down pretty fast, yet you caught me perfectly. So, Bai Qian, you must’ve been watching me from afar the whole time. When you saw something was off, you panicked and rushed right over, huh?”

Bai Qian shoved the bowl of wonton soup—minus the green onions—into her hand, grabbed a napkin, and wiped the faint scald mark from the back of her own hand. “I’m returning those words you just said right back to you.”

“Hmm?”

“Shao Zizhi, are you okay?”

“…”

She tossed the napkin into the trash can, her expression turning inscrutable. “Since you want to talk about last night right now, I won’t wait for you to finish eating. I’ll just say it straight. What happened last night was completely beyond either of our expectations.”

She paused, glossing over the fact that she’d lost control to the drug after the other woman leaned in for a kiss.

“No matter what compensation you need, Miss Shao, I’ll do everything in my power to make it up to you. I have other matters to attend to. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going. You can text me about the compensation.”

Shao Zizhi had just scooped up a wonton and was blowing on it near her lips when Bai Qian brought up last night; her movements froze, and the lingering trace of shyness on her face went rigid at that final sentence.

Head bowed, lost in thought, Shao Zizhi didn’t respond. Bai Qian waited two seconds, straightened from her half-crouch, and turned to leave.

A hand suddenly seized the hem of her clothes.

The woman wailed in aggrieved tears, “How can you be so heartless! It was me who got treated like that—you had your fun and just dumped me here. You didn’t even ask if I’m hurt anywhere! It was my first time doing something like that with anyone, but instead of comforting me, you’re saying you have other things to do! Boo-hoo-hoo, what could possibly be more important than me! You don’t care about me at all! You kissed me yesterday, and now you’re tossing me aside today!”

Bai Qian’s steps faltered. She reached down to pry loose the hand gripping her clothes, but it clung on like a child refusing to surrender a beloved toy. The sobs grew even more pitiful. “I’m not as experienced as you, boo-hoo-hoo! You’re talking so coldly! You’re snapping at me! Boo-hoo-hoo, you’re snapping at me!”

Bai Qian: ?

Unable to tug her hem free, whatever—she didn’t want it back.

She turned, fixing her gaze on the tear-streaked beauty, her own expression complicated. “Who said I’m experienced?”

“The way you knew exactly what to do and all that—how is that not experienced!” Tears brimmed in Shao Zizhi’s eyes as she glared at her in dissatisfaction.

Unable to resist, Bai Qian lightly tapped the smooth, pale forehead. “If you don’t know, you can learn. Got it, little girl?”

Shao Zizhi’s face flushed scarlet, whether from the touch or those three lightly laughing words that tugged at her heartstrings, she couldn’t say.

Her voice lost its earlier boldness. Tilting her head up in a show of defiance, she looked for all the world like a kitten with its puffed-up paws caught mid-swipe. “Don’t call me Miss Shao anymore! Remember that!”

Bai Qian fell silent. Was that really the point?

“I’m eating now, so you’re not allowed to leave. Until I go, you have to stay with me! I don’t need you to take responsibility, but you can’t just do nothing like you did this morning and walk off patting your butt on the way out. That’s super shameless—don’t you agree?”

Bai Qian pondered for a moment, then nodded.

She had no idea why events were diverging so sharply from the original plot, but for her, it was nothing but upside.

Being able to interact openly with the female protagonist and help change her doomed ending beat agonizing over how to play the role of an “invisible guardian” any day.

Shao Zizhi ate slowly, nibbling tiny bites and chewing them to bits before swallowing.

Her appetite was small too; after just five wontons, she set the bowl aside and refused to touch it.

“Not eating anymore?”

“I’m full.”

Bai Qian couldn’t forget it had cost eight bucks—a small fortune for her at the moment.

Unwilling to waste it, she picked up the bowl and polished off the rest.

Shao Zizhi couldn’t hold back, her voice soft and fluffy. “My dad eats my mom’s leftovers too. Bai Qian, you really don’t like me at all?”

This time, her response was mild; she just coughed lightly and set down the empty bowl.

“I’m still saying the same thing as before.”

The Little Princess pouted, inwardly cursing her again. “Fine if you don’t like me. Good thing, too—otherwise, if you liked me and I didn’t like you back, it’d be pretty pitiful for you.”

“Thanks. There definitely won’t come a day when you have to deal with that headache.”

Shao Zizhi didn’t reply. Instead, she suddenly flung off the blanket, lay down right in front of her, and prodded her thigh. “My waist still aches so badly. Rub it for me—you caused it, so you fix it.”

Bai Qian didn’t refuse. As one of the Quick Transmigration World Guardians, she was proficient in these basic support skills.

Her hands settled on the woman’s slender waist… and she found herself reluctant to let go.

It felt like kneading a cloud—so incredibly soft.

Bai Qian could have stayed perfectly calm. That is, until Shao Zizhi grew so comfortable that she let out an involuntary, delicate moan.

The sound conjured up memories Bai Qian had tried to banish from her mind. Her movements paused for a heartbeat before she composed herself and continued.

“Mmm… ah…”

Her breathing instantly grew ragged. Bai Qian withdrew her hand at just the right moment and straightened up. “That’s enough.”

“No way! I was just getting into it. Keep going—I didn’t say stop, so you can’t!”

“I’m tired.”

Shao Zizhi craned her neck, her gaze sliding from Bai Qian’s hand up to her face. “I can wait till you’ve rested. Once you’re good to go, you can pick up where you left off.”

Bai Qian rejected her without a shred of warmth. “I can’t. Go to a shop and get someone there to do it.”

“It’s not like somebody else groped me! You started this—you fix it. I don’t care. If you don’t massage me till I’m blissed out today, you’re not leaving this room! This hotel’s owned by my dad anyway. If I say you stay, you stay.”

She said nothing, but the barest ripple disturbed the calm surface of her eyes.

The Little Princess wouldn’t let up. “You hear me, Bai Qian? You’ve got ten minutes to rest, then you’re back on massage duty!”

Bai Qian’s tightly pressed lips suddenly relaxed, the faintest curve tugging at their corners.

“Shao Zizhi, haven’t you learned anything from last night?”

The bewilderment on her face shifted to flustered embarrassment as Bai Qian suddenly leaned in close. She tried to pull away on instinct, but pinned in her current position, she couldn’t budge.

All she could do was watch, helpless, as Bai Qian’s lips brushed the corner of her own.

“Now do you get why I can’t keep massaging you?”