Chapter 2: Slept With

About last night.

【If you don’t come before twelve tonight, I’ll just find someone else. I’ve never forced you before, but today, I want to force you once.】

A little after nine at night, Ming You sent this message on QQ to her White Moonlight, whom she had foolishly waited for two years. The chat box also included two photos: one of a bar sign with clear text, and the other of her hand holding a wine glass.

The threat in her words and actions was straightforward to the point of being outrageous. She was gambling—gambling on a true heart.

A pure white polo shirt paired with loose black suspender pants, her hair tied in a high ponytail, and only a minimal base makeup without extra embellishments—like a lotus emerging from clear water, naturally beautiful without adornment.

In a place like a bar, a girl with clear brows and bright eyes was rare and precious. Her looks were right there, so even if Ming You just sat silently, in the two-plus hours, the people coming to hit on her were too numerous to count with two hands.

As it approached midnight, Ming You listlessly swiped her phone a few times, patted her forehead, then irritably slammed it face-down on the table. She absentmindedly looked around.

Nearly three hours had passed with no reply, and she hadn’t seen the person she was hoping for. The disappointment and despair in her heart grew deeper.

In her agitation, a tall woman with shoulder-length blue hair sat in the empty seat beside her. Her fingertips tapped the tabletop. “Little sister, drinking alone isn’t good. What if you run into someone with bad intentions? Let’s be friends. I’ll take you home?”

Ming You sneered disdainfully and downed the wine in her glass in one refreshing gulp. She held the empty glass upside down and pointed at the bottom with her index finger at the blue-haired woman. “Without drinking a glass, how can we talk about being friends?”

“If my little sister wants to drink, one glass is nothing. Ten glasses are fine too. Wait for me one minute.” The blue-haired woman smiled and left her seat.

Right after, another woman in a deep coffee-colored sleeveless knit top sat on the high stool the blue-haired woman had just vacated. Her body pressed close to Ming You as she gently blew air. “Little Darling, you’re still in school, right? How old are you?”

Suddenly teased so intimately, Ming You instinctively dodged backward, but to her right was the cold wall, leaving her nowhere to escape.

Pretending to stay calm, she forced a vulgar smile that didn’t match her age at the corners of her mouth. She grabbed the woman’s wrist on her shoulder and moved it away. “Don’t worry, beautiful big sister. I’m an adult. You can hit on me all you want, but no freeloading. By the rules, there has to be drinks, and beautiful big sister is no exception.”

“What drinks? Drinking harms the body. If you want it, big sister will give you all the color from head to toe.” Ginger was still hotter when older—the woman’s unrestrained words successfully left Ming You speechless and laughing.

Just then, the returning blue-haired woman placed the four glasses in her hand one by one on the table.

She looked playfully at the woman in the knit top who had taken her seat and the other companion “lost in thought” behind her, then spoke. “Good thing I had the foresight to grab a few extra. Do the two beautiful ladies want to join? I don’t mind.”

The woman in the knit top ignored her and said to Ming You, “Little Darling, you need to keep your eyes open in a place like this. Look at her, then look at me, and… my friend.”

She pointed to the silent companion behind her to the side, then at the blue-haired woman. “Us two busty and curvy big beauties—in looks or figure, which one of us doesn’t have more feminine charm than her?”

And her companion, Yan Ningxi, was lowering her head, lost in thought about something.

“???” The blue-haired woman widened her eyes.

The woman in the knit top picked up glasses from the table and downed two in a row. Who knew one was alcohol and the other wasn’t. Skimping like this?

She domineeringly draped an arm around Ming You’s shoulder and disdainfully raised her brows at the blue-haired woman. “Your drinks are good, and plain water’s not bad either. Big sister accepts them with a smile. As for you, don’t force yourself. Can’t you see? The little sister is in my arms.”

A third wheel had killed her buzz, she’d lost water and alcohol, and even been called lacking in feminine charm. The blue-haired woman was slightly angry. “You…”

The silent Yan Ningxi suddenly snapped out of it. She stepped between the two contending women and said seriously to the blue-haired woman, “Show me your payment code. For the drinks, I’ll transfer the money to you.”

“Are you two nuts?!” The blue-haired woman suddenly felt insulted and cursed lowly.

“How can you play without being able to take a joke?” Seeing the situation turning sour, to avoid unnecessary conflict, the woman in the knit top quickly stood, teasingly pushed the blue-haired woman away, and gave her a flirtatious glance. “I can see you’re an old hand too. What’s the fun in dealing with immature kids and that thousand-year iron tree that doesn’t get romance? We’ll go play our adult games.”

With that, she lifted her chin at Yan Ningxi, meaning nothing less than “the pure little darling is yours.”

After the fuss from these strangers, Ming You’s head throbbed even more, but she still downed the remaining two glasses on the table… plain water?

“Hey, little beauty, still here.” A red-clothed woman with at least D-cup assets came to hit on her. Off-the-shoulder top, she leaned over the table, showing Ming You the time on her wristwatch. “See, it’s almost midnight. You’ve had enough drinks. Big sister will take you to the next game, how about it?”

“Don’t rush. What if the little sister doesn’t like your type?” Another androgynous short-haired woman in a men’s shirt and slacks squeezed in, the two surrounding Ming You. “Let the little sister choose: you or me.”

Ming You shook her dizzy head, remembering she had said the same thing to quite a few people offering drinks.

—Come find me after midnight, if I’m still here.

She checked her phone hopefully again. Still no new messages. Ming You used the table to stand, softly hooked the red-clothed woman’s shoulder, ignored the pungent perfume on her, tilted her head, and smiled at the short-haired woman. “If I choose, then I’ll pick… the seductive and charming beautiful big sister type.”

The red-clothed woman smugly circled Ming You’s waist. “Perfect, big sister likes your type the most.”

“Then, beautiful big sister, a kiss?” Ming You half-closed her eyes, cheeks flushed red, temples throbbing. Her rationality was fading bit by bit.

“You’re sure here?” The red-clothed woman was abnormally excited.

Ming You nodded heavily twice, red lips slightly parted, wine scent spilling as she spoke. “Yeah, right here. Not okay?”

But as soon as the words left her mouth, Ming You was yanked away from the red-clothed woman’s enthusiastic hold by a force, falling into another new embrace. Her forehead even bumped the other’s chin—cool and not painful.

Perhaps from drinking too much, plus the bar’s enclosed space packed with people and poor ventilation, the girl felt stiflingly hot, like being in a big steamer.

The new body holding her was ice-cold. The clash of ice and fire felt very comfortable against her skin. Even a girl who usually rejected physical contact couldn’t help rubbing her feverish cheek lightly against the woman’s exposed neck and jaw to cool down and seek bodily comfort.

“Who are you?” The red-clothed woman glared at Yan Ningxi, eyes full of provocation. “You trying to steal my person?”

Yan Ningxi didn’t respond to the woman’s provocation. She whispered softly in the girl’s ear, “You’re drunk. It’s too noisy and chaotic here. Come with me?”

Ming You looked up at the words.

In her hazy vision, the stranger woman’s clear and pure eyes made her see a vast expanse of pristine snowy landscape, immaculate and flawless. It had been so long since she’d seen such clean eyes.

A pang of sourness hit Ming You’s heart, but she bloomed into a brilliant smile on her face, lazily burying her head in the woman’s shoulder again. “Go where? Kiss first, then sleep?”

Yan Ningxi didn’t answer and moved to lead the girl out with an arm around her.

Seeing the girl being taken, the former rivals—the red-clothed woman and short-haired woman—united in common cause, blocking the unscrupulous Yan Ningxi.

The red-clothed woman hooked her lips. “I say, beautiful, everything has a first-come-first-served, right? The little sister even said clearly she wanted me. Cutting in out of nowhere like this isn’t cool.”

The smoky, deafening music in the bar made it hard for Yan Ningxi, who was there for the first time, to adapt. She just wanted to leave quickly.

“Please move aside.” Raised with good manners since childhood, she wouldn’t quarrel or act barbaric. Even dealing with troublemakers, she politely added “please.”

“Move? Heh, what if we don’t?”

The short-haired woman shifted targets, taking interest in the abstinence-type cool imperial sister in front of her, dressed in a white shirt, black suit pants, and low ponytail. Quite rare.

She deliberately made it difficult. “If big sister wants someone younger, I work too. Truth be told, I’m only twenty this year, and I definitely know better than the little sister in your arms how to make big sister feel good… Consider me, how about it?”

The short-haired woman reached out to touch Yan Ningxi, but Ming You grabbed her wrist and twisted it 180 degrees the other way, making her yelp in pain.

She immediately clutched Ming You’s arm hard with her other hand and bluffed, “Little sister has some strength. Considering you’re young and drunk, I won’t hold it against you this time. Let go now, and you’re still in time.”

“In time for what? Hmm?” Ming You didn’t back down. With her fresh and refined face, she said the harshest words. “I’m the one leaving with the pretty big sister. What’s it to you? Want to fight?”

With her wrist clamped by the little girl, the increasing force made the pain unbearable, and the short-haired woman was thoroughly enraged. “Fuck, you think I’m a pushover?”

Ming You: “Being a pushover is boring. Good thing, I don’t like pushovers either…”

Before Ming You lost her reason, Yan Ningxi placed a hand over the back of hers to hold it, silently soothing.

Her other hand opened her phone at the same time, entered the dial interface, pressed “110,” and said to the short-haired and red-clothed women, “If the two of you haven’t had enough fun, why don’t we change places and continue chatting?”

The coolness from the hand back weakened the fiercely burning anger in Ming You’s heart. The force in her hand gradually lessened. She slowly released the short-haired woman’s wrist and her body limply fell back into Yan Ningxi’s embrace.

Just a little more, just a little, and she would have been controlled by demonic emotions again, becoming someone she didn’t recognize.

That feeling of being unable to control her emotions, her body scorched by fierce flames, ready to explode at any moment—she hadn’t experienced it in over three years.

So long that she’d almost forgotten the old her was a “mental patient.”

After the false alarm, Yan Ningxi finally helped Ming You out of the bar. “Where do you live? I’ll take you back.”

The girl’s emotions were in turmoil, and she stayed silent.

Yan Ningxi said again, “If you don’t want to say, call a friend to pick you up. I’ll wait with you.” She didn’t suggest calling family—the girl’s state probably meant she didn’t want to be seen by them.

“Big sis, don’t tell me you’re actually nuts?” But the girl didn’t appreciate Yan Ningxi’s kindness. She pushed her away, hooked onto a roadside tree instead, and yelled irritably at her. “I have no friends, no one to pick me up. Either take me to a hotel or dump me on the street. Stop yapping.”

No matter how angry she felt inside, Yan Ningxi couldn’t just casually abandon a drunk young girl on the street.

At a hotel near the bar, as soon as they swiped the card and entered the room, the girl who had been groggy on the way roughly pinned her against the door. Before she could push back, her neck was bitten.

“At a time like this, drop the fake purity act. Pretty big sister actually brings girls to hotels all the time, right? Tell me, how do you want to play tonight? Hmm?”

Neck stinging with pain, Yan Ningxi finally realized what was happening. She frowned tightly, lips pressed, and used great force to push away this girl who kept testing her patience and limits.

The unprepared girl fell sitting on the floor and simply gave up, leaning back to lie flat on the ground.

“Don’t you think I’m cheap too?”

“Yeah, I am cheap. Been cheap for so long, and still got nothing…”

Yan Ningxi clutched her bitten neck, chest heaving dramatically. She never commented rashly on people, so she couldn’t answer the girl’s question.

The girl kept murmuring “why” from her mouth, gradually falling silent.

The two stayed like that—one lying, one standing—in a standoff for a long time. In the end, Yan Ningxi calmed her emotions, swallowed her anger, and pulled the troublesome girl onto the bed.

…

Yan Ningxi clearly remembered everything that happened last night.

What was that about “once you sleep, you don’t acknowledge it”? When did she sleep? Sitting on the sofa all night counted as “sleeping”?

Seeing the woman angered away by her, Ming You quickened her steps to catch up with the briskly walking woman and walked side by side. Though she had been muddled and drunk a lot last night, she still remembered this part with Yan Ningxi vividly.

She remembered cursing Yan Ningxi and even biting her. She remembered Yan Ningxi pushing her, then helping her onto the bed. She also remembered throwing a drunken tantrum out of sheer desperation, kneeling on the bed and acting spoiled as she hugged Yan Ningxi, babbling that she smelled good, felt cool, looked good, and felt so comfortable.

Later on, Yan Ningxi had stuffed a pillow into her arms for her to hug, helped her take off her shoes, and tucked her in.

Her final memory was of Yan Ningxi turning off the light and sitting on the sofa to look at her phone. No matter how much she tossed and turned or made a fuss, Yan Ningxi hadn’t said a single word the entire time.

She was certain that nothing more intimate had happened between her and Yan Ningxi—no skin-to-skin contact at all. Yan Ningxi hadn’t even touched her. No matter how inexperienced she was with romance, she still possessed basic knowledge about sex.

A bet was a bet.

She had already gone all out the night before. Even if she really had slept with some woman, she would have accepted it. Not to mention with a woman as uniquely charismatic as Yan Ningxi—she hadn’t lost out one bit.

Although they hadn’t actually slept together, she had hugged her, bitten her, and clung to her. That was reason enough for her to latch onto Yan Ningxi.

So, without a care in the world, she continued, “Is pretty sister mad? But everything I said was true. Sigh, I didn’t expect you to be so easy to tease. Alright, no more jokes. So, can we talk about something else? You and Teacher He are so close—are you friends or besties?”

From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the girl. Yan Ningxi exuded an awe-inspiring presence without a hint of anger. “Right now, Teacher He and I teach the same grade and share the same office. Since you were once a graduate of No. 3 Middle School and one of Teacher He’s students, you should always remember to respect your teachers. Whether I taught you or not, you should address me politely as Teacher Yan. The ‘Yan’ from ‘gentle smiles,’ which you learned about in your textbooks.”