She turned and smiled at him. “Otherwise what, President Li? I’ve already been blacklisted.”
Li Gaoxuan toyed with his glass. “I’ll make sure you cease to exist in this industry altogether.”
“Feel free to try, President Li.”
“Little Chun.” Li Gaoxuan drained his glass in one go. “What I meant to say earlier is this: name your condition, and I’ll make it happen. That way… we all win.”
Yun Chun leaned down toward him and offered a polite smile. In a soft voice, she said, “I’m not one to strike first. And I certainly wouldn’t stoop to the level of some petty, small-minded schemer.”
She spoke deliberately, enunciating each word. “Don’t cross the line, President Li, and we’ll have no problems.”
“Fine.” Li Gaoxuan set his empty glass on the table. Tilting his head back, he commanded her. “Pour me another.”
Since Yun Chun was playing waitress, asking her to pour a drink didn’t count as crossing the line, did it?
She knew he was trying to assert dominance, but she couldn’t care less. As she reached for the bottle, she scanned the table. The remaining three bottles had been divvied up almost entirely.
The corner of her mouth quirked up. Yun Chun filled his glass to the brim and held it out. “Fine wine like this deserves to be savored, President Li.”
Li Gaoxuan stared at Yun Chun as he slowly raised his hand.
He had to admit, she was exactly his type. Otherwise, he never would have rushed straight to that hotel room the moment she sent him the number.
Sure, she’d gotten the drop on him once, but that very sense of defeat… it only made her more appealing.
Fiery.
Too damn fiery.
Not her figure—it was her personality.
Especially now: that haughty, dismissive gaze, like some untouchable flower atop a snowy peak. It ignited an urge in him, a primal need to conquer her that defied words.
He couldn’t help imagining her in bed. Would she still glare at him with disgust? Or would her eyes brim with desperate lust as she begged?
Li Gaoxuan licked his lips and murmured, “You’re not bad yourself.”
He’d spoken barely above a whisper, but the music had hit an interlude. Yun Chun heard every word.
Her brows furrowed. She couldn’t hold back any longer. Just as his fingers brushed the glass, she let go.
It crashed to the floor with a sharp clink—the sound crisp but drowned out by the singing in the room.
Wine splashed everywhere, spattering Li Gaoxuan’s trouser cuffs and shoes. He glanced down, then looked up. His smile thinned as he growled, “Shouldn’t you get on your knees and wipe my shoes?”
Yun Chun shot him a sidelong glance. “You’re the one who couldn’t hold on to it, President Li. Why push the blame onto me? Or are you actually paralyzed? Can’t even manage a glass of water?”
She’d dropped the pretense entirely. If he reported her, so be it. Even if Mo Yue fired her over it, she’d accept the consequences.
Li Gaoxuan was repulsive. She just couldn’t fake it anymore.
Her own pants and shoes were splashed too. After speaking, she shook her foot sharply—as if she might kick him. Li Gaoxuan shot to his feet on instinct.
The others were singing, but they’d been watching the pair covertly all along.
They hadn’t seen the glass drop, but Li Gaoxuan’s sudden rise made them all fall silent in an instant, unsure what had happened.
For a moment, the only sound in the private room came from the music video flickering on the screen.
Yun Chun’s lips curved into a smirk. Li Gaoxuan’s reaction was the funniest thing she’d seen all night. Without a word, she turned and strode out of the private room.
Once she was gone, Li Gaoxuan realized his overreaction had cost him face. Still, her parting silhouette lingered in his mind—especially that final, scornful glance. It only fueled his craving to discover just how fiery she could be.
He turned and waved them off. “Keep singing. What are you staring at me for?”
All the while, he pondered how to bring her to heel.
As he sank back onto the sofa, a sudden chill swept over him. He slapped the person beside him. “Go turn down the air conditioning.”
~~~
Five minutes later.
Wenwen pushed open the door to the break room and found Yun Chun seated at the table. She held an orange, her slender fingers peeling it with deliberate care.
Yun Chun still reeked of smoke and booze, but as Wenwen approached, the fresh citrus scent filled her nostrils. Before she could speak, half a segment of orange appeared before her.
“Did Sister Yan go settle the bill?” Yun Chun asked.
Wenwen took the piece and popped it into her mouth. Sour-sweet juice burst across her tongue. “Yeah, she just went in.”
Yun Chun smiled. “Why didn’t you tag along to keep an eye on our God of Wealth?”
“You’re my God of Wealth, Sister Yun,” Wenwen replied. “Once I get paid, I’ll treat you to dinner for sure.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Yun Chun broke off a segment for herself, slipped it between her lips, and narrowed her eyes in delight. So sweet.
Back in the private room, Yang Cheng stared at the bill in disbelief. “A hundred… a hundred and fifty grand?!”
Stunned, he asked the woman before him, “You didn’t put the decimal point in the wrong spot?”
Sister Yan—the one Yun Chun had mentioned—replied calmly, “Of course not, sir. This wine costs thirty-eight thousand one hundred yuan per bottle. You ordered four, and after wiping the change, that comes to one hundred fifty-two thousand yuan total. Since you took all four at once, the rest of the drinks and fruit plates are on the house.”
Yang Cheng swallowed hard. “Hold on. Let me make a call.”
Li Gaoxuan had stepped out to use the restroom.
He was just reaching the bathroom door when Yang Cheng rang. Li Gaoxuan released the model draped over him, shoved open the bathroom door, and stepped inside while answering.
“What?” he snapped irritably. “I’m trying to take a piss here.”
A second later: “What do you mean four bottles cost a hundred fifty grand?!”
No wonder Yun Chun had said all that. He’d thought she was buttering him up—turns out, she’d laid a trap.
He scowled. “Hang tight. I’m coming back.”
He hung up without relieving himself and hurried toward the private room.
He’d dropped that kind of money on booze before, but if his wife found out he’d brought company models to a KTV and blown over a hundred fifty thousand… that wouldn’t go over well.
At the bathroom door, though, the handle wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he yanked.
“Who’s out there? Youyou?”
He called the name of the girl who’d come with him. No answer. He pounded on the door.
“Whoever you are, open this door!”
Still nothing.
Li Gaoxuan spat in disgust and drew back his foot to kick it down.
That was when the bathroom lights began to flicker.
Li Gaoxuan froze.
A sudden noise came from behind him.
Li Gaoxuan turned to look.
The door to one of the toilet stalls was opening and closing like a clamshell, over and over, with no apparent reason. It was as if someone were hiding inside, deliberately messing with him one time after another.
The creaking of the door hinges sent chills down his spine. Li Gaoxuan pressed himself against the wall, licked his lips, and mustered his courage. He slowly edged toward the first stall and yanked the door open to peer inside.
Nothing.
A wisp of cold air rushed out to greet him instead.
Li Gaoxuan stumbled back a step in fright, right up to the urinal. But as he stared at the stall door flapping open and shut, a chill prickled across his back.
He whipped his head around. The urinal was spraying water outward, splashing his face.
Li Gaoxuan scrambled to dodge the stream and wiped his face with a furious swipe. “Who is it?! Yun Chun?! What the hell do you want?!”
She was the only one he could think of pulling a stunt like this, especially here on her turf.
The moment he said Yun Chun’s name, the flapping door came to a sudden halt. Even the water from the urinal stopped.
Only the lights kept flickering, their dimming and brightening glow making it seem like a gateway to another world was about to yawn open.
A sizzling crackle of electricity accompanied the flashing lights, along with the wails of men and women, the cries of infants—even the piercing screech of fingernails dragging across a chalkboard…
Fear gripped Li Gaoxuan at last.
He opened his mouth. “Yun Chun, we agreed to live and let live. You… you let me go, and I swear I won’t cause you any more trouble from now on.”
A white shadow materialized in the air before him.
Li Gaoxuan stared at it.
The shadow slowly faded away, leaving only a head behind—one with a face identical to his own.
Li Gaoxuan’s mouth fell open. His heart seemed to stop for two full seconds before he found his voice again. “Gho… ghost…”
He slumped against the wall, his hands groping blindly for something to grab. He shrank into the corner and seized a standing cleaning sign. Raising it high, he hurled it at the shadow.
The shadow didn’t vanish. Instead, the face—so like his own—began oozing blood from the corners of its eyes. Its mouth worked open and shut, emitting a ghostly wail: “You… are… not… bad… Let… me… eat… you…”
As it spoke, the teeth in that shadow-version of himself began dropping loose, one by one. With every word, the corners of its mouth split a little wider, until by the end, the tear reached its ears and the lower jaw dangled nearly to the floor.
Li Gaoxuan’s eyes flew wide at the sight. His heart clenched again. “Ah! Get lost!”
He shouted as he collapsed into the corner.
He squeezed his eyes shut and flailed his arms wildly, claws outstretched.
A warm trickle spread beneath him.
He had pissed himself in terror.
And right then, someone shook his shoulder. A man peered at him. “Sir? Sir?”
Li Gaoxuan’s body still trembled as ghostly mutterings spilled from his lips.
The toilet stalls and open doors were now crowded with onlookers.
What a nutjob.
They had all seen him come in, make a phone call, and turn to leave—only for him to start spazzing out, yelling about ghosts, talking to himself, smashing things, pounding on doors.
If they hadn’t witnessed his solo freakout, they might have thought there really was a ghost.
~~~
Before the news of the lunatic in the bathroom reached her, Yun Chun was lounging in the break room, surrounded by a cluster of admirers.
One kneaded her shoulders, another pounded her legs, while someone else peeled an orange for her.
They chattered away:
“Sister Yun, next time something this good comes up, take me along, yeah?”
“Sister Yun, you’re playing favorites—taking Little Wen to make a killing but leaving us out?”
“Sister Yun, am I not your good little sister anymore?”
“Sister Yun~”
Wenwen stood off to the side. “…”
Their endless chatter buzzed in her ears until Yun Chun raised a hand to shush them. “It had nothing to do with me. Little Wen sold the booze herself.”
One of them piped up. “But Little Wen just said it was your idea, Sister Yun.”
Wenwen winced inwardly, cursing her own loose lips in a moment of excitement.
Yun Chun shot Wenwen a casual glance. “What a joke. If there’s money to be made, you think I’d pass it up?”
Wenwen jumped in. “Exactly! I was just messing around earlier. You guys actually bought that?”
The group nodded; it made sense. Everyone knew Yun Chun’s love for cash. The commission on a fifteen-grand bottle of liquor was no small change—she had no reason to hand it off to someone else.
Just then, a commotion erupted outside the door.
Someone cracked it open to ask, then shouted back that there was a crazy guy in the bathroom. The group rushed off in a hurry to check out the spectacle.
Yun Chun had no interest in such nonsense. She lifted her legs—which a couple of them had propped up on another chair—intending to get up and ask Sister Yan if the bill was settled yet.
But her legs rose only an inch before she couldn’t lift them any farther.
It felt just like… someone was sitting on them. A weight light as air, yet as real and heavy as flesh and bone.
Yun Chun froze.
The moment she realized what was happening, a languid voice purred in her ear: “Sister Yun~”
That familiar tone confirmed her suspicions.
What was it like to have Lu Qingxue call you “sister”?
Yun Chun felt an inexplicable panic she couldn’t quite name—especially with that soft, teasing lilt in Lu Qingxue’s voice. It made her heart race, tinged with a strange itch.
As Lu Qingxue’s form flickered into hazy view, Yun Chun took in her posture.
Lu Qingxue sat primly on Yun Chun’s lap, legs neatly crossed, her willow-leaf eyes curved in a gentle gaze fixed on Yun Chun.
“You…”
Yun Chun’s heart pounded harder. She swallowed and murmured, “I wasn’t thinking about you.”
Meaning: I wasn’t thinking about you, so why did you show up?
Lu Qingxue wore her hair in neat cornrows, with soft wisps framing her face tenderly. At Yun Chun’s words, she braced her hands on either side of Yun Chun’s thigh and leaned in closer, her smile warm and sweet. “I was thinking about you, Sister Yun~”
