Chapter 24: You Can Contact Me Anytime Part 3

“Two.” Miao Zhu smiled and sat, messaging Lu Zheng: “Come drink.”

Lu Zheng arrived but didn’t drink. Miao Zhu didn’t push her and drank on her own, watching the bartender mix drinks and chatting with him.

As her first glass neared empty, Miao Zhu propped her cheek and asked Lu Zheng, “Do you report to her where I go and what I do?”

Lu Zheng said, “Miss Miao, we’re protecting you, not surveilling you. President Mu instructed that unless it’s an emergency, there’s no need to report to her.”

Miao Zhu: “What’s an emergency?”

Lu Zheng: “My understanding is when you’re in trouble.”

“Oh.” Miao Zhu finished the rest of her drink.

Leaving the bar, Miao Zhu’s steps were steady but slow. She crossed the zebra crossing and headed back to the sea.

The temperature dropped after nightfall, making her off-shoulder dress seem thin on her back. She walked and stopped until sitting on a bench along the promenade, hugging her knees and burying her face in her arms.

“Miss Miao, are you drunk? Or unwell?” Lu Zheng approached.

Miao Zhu shook her head, words slurred: “I don’t dare reach out to her, and she hasn’t contacted me.”

Lu Zheng had no response for that.

There was a moon that night, its light scattering like shattered silver on the sea. Streetlights brightly lit the beach. Miao Zhu held the pose, like a curled-up kitten.

Her sunglasses had been perched on her head; now they slipped off with a clatter to the ground.

Unclear what state Miao Zhu was in, Lu Zheng stepped away. Minutes later, she returned running and handed Miao Zhu a phone. “Miss Miao, President Mu wants to speak with you.”

Miao Zhu twitched her ears and abruptly lifted her head.

The phone screen in front of her showed a call timer that had already been running for five minutes. Shocked, Miao Zhu immediately shot Lu Zheng an accusatory glare with her eyes. It was past three in the morning back home!

Lu Zheng sat there steady as a rock, as if the call had materialized out of thin air and had nothing to do with her at all.

……

Miao Zhu answered the call. From the quiet line came Mu Shanyi’s voice, laced with sleepiness but still tolerant: “Did you drink?”

“It was very low alcohol, just a small cup.” Miao Zhu drooped her head. “I’m not drunk, and I don’t feel unwell… Sorry, Sister A-Heng, I disturbed your rest.”

“Then I’ll go back to sleep?”

“No!” Miao Zhu glanced at Lu Zheng’s receding back and stammered, “Don’t hang up yet…”

Mu Shanyi seemed to laugh—Miao Zhu caught a very faint breath of sound.

“Why didn’t you dare contact me?” Mu Shanyi asked her.

Great. Lu Zheng must have relayed their entire conversation to Mu Shanyi word for word.

Miao Zhu fiddled with the lace on her skirt hem, her tone soft and lacking confidence: “I was worried you didn’t want to see my messages or hear my voice, worried you were still upset because of me…”

She trailed off there. Upset because of her? Sad? Conflicted? … Miao Zhu couldn’t find the right words for the moment.

Anything too intense would sound self-indulgent.

Mu Shanyi picked up the thread: “You can contact me anytime.”

“…Oh.” Miao Zhu suppressed the upward curve of her lips.

It was so strange. The tAngeld knot of emotions she’d felt these days because of Mu Shanyi unraveled with just one sentence from Mu Shanyi.

“Sister A-Heng, can you hear the waves?”

“Not just that—there’s wind too.”

“I want to play with Princess.”

“Mm.”

“I want to walk Grace.”

“Good.”

“Actually, I can make some simple home-cooked dishes too.”

Mu Shanyi laughed for real this time. The low chuckle was brief but clear.

But knowing how to cook wasn’t funny.

“What are you laughing at…” As Miao Zhu asked, she felt her heart pounding thump-thump.

Across the phone and a six-hour time difference, Mu Shanyi’s soft words felt like they were right by Miao Zhu’s ear.

She said, “I know.”

Maybe it was the alcohol, or the jet lag finally catching up, or perhaps this phone call with Mu Shanyi by the seaside. In any case, Miao Zhu didn’t toss and turn that night. She lay down in bed and fell asleep quickly.

She slept soundly until she vaguely heard the door.

Someone was knocking.

The knocks were restrained in force and rhythm, but the act itself was persistent, with no regard for whether the person inside needed rest.

Miao Zhu struggled out of bed and opened the door.

Flora stood there half-supporting Sheng Xingran outside her door.

Sheng Xingran reeked of alcohol and was slumped against Flora’s shoulder, already fast asleep.

Miao Zhu’s drowsiness vanished in an instant. “Xingran has a low tolerance—did she drink a lot?” She hurried over to help support her.

Flora didn’t let go. “She drank a lot. You take care of her, or should I?”

The question was a bit out of line, but considering Li Zi’s warning from earlier that day, it wasn’t all that surprising.

“I’ll do it.” Even so, Miao Zhu didn’t hesitate. She didn’t know Flora well enough to trust leaving an unconscious, drunk Sheng Xingran with her overnight.

“I’ve already given her some sobering medicine.” Flora said nothing more and helped Miao Zhu get Sheng Xingran into the room and settled on the bed.

“Thanks, Flora. When Xingran sobers up, I’ll make sure to tell her how you took care of her.”

This sparked Flora’s interest. She raised an eyebrow in a meaningful way. “Sure.”

Miao Zhu removed Sheng Xingran’s sunscreen, washed her face and hands. After finishing all that, she let out a yawn. She picked up her phone to check the time and noticed a video message from Li Zi floating on the screen.

Miao Zhu tapped it open casually.

A four-second video: on the bar rooftop, under the flickering, hazy lights, Sheng Xingran was kissing Flora.

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