Chapter 24: Seduction

When Qi Xuexin returned from ordering drinks at the bar, that cigarette was already clumsily pinched between the girl’s right index and middle fingers.

“Sister Qi, if you could only pick one between cigarettes and booze, which would it be?”

“Only kids make choices. A worldly, glamorous mature beauty like me wants both, of course.” Qi Xuexin took the cigarette from her hand, snapped it in two with her fingers, and tossed it into the ashtray. “It’s not a good thing. If you don’t know how to smoke, don’t learn. How am I supposed to explain it to Yan Huahua if you pick up bad habits?”

The server came over with a tray. This time, it wasn’t cocktails but six bottles of beer, all already opened.

“Can you still drink?”

Seeing Qi Xuexin pick up a bottle and fill two glasses, Ming You lifted her glass first and clinked it against the other. “It’s booze from Sister Qi. It’d be rude to refuse.” She had come here to drown her sorrows in the first place. It didn’t matter who she drank with.

“You’re not that old, but you sure can hold your liquor. How’d you train that up?”

“I… have a relative who sells booze.”

Her relative was her dad. After Ming Tai and Yang Guishu went into business for themselves, they dealt in alcohol. All kinds of booze flowed through the house nonstop. Ming You had drunk plenty as a kid—they all did.

“As expected, you gotta start ’em young on the drinking.” Qi Xuexin lifted her chin. “Don’t hog the good stuff. Remember to bring Sister some bottles.”

The two of them drank cup for cup, straight-up competing with no real reason.

They drained all the bottles, and Ming You called for a fresh round.

The woman across from her had flushed cheeks—she was probably a little tipsy. Ming You asked, “When did Sister Qi have her first love?”

The woman was bold enough to flinch at the mention of first loves. Ming You wanted to use the chance to dig into her storied past and grab some leverage.

“Want to hear my romantic history? Sure. But fair’s fair—you go first.”

Qi Xuexin had misjudged Ming You’s tolerance. She had planned to get the girl drunk and pry out some truths, but bottle after bottle went down, and her opponent didn’t even blush. Instead, she herself started feeling woozy.

So she turned it around, playing along with Ming You’s lead. For the sake of her good sister’s happiness, she’d sacrifice a little and lay her emotions bare.

“Never dated. Nothing to tell.”

A romance newbie?

Perfect, as far as Qi Xuexin was concerned. She wouldn’t trust handing a fellow newbie like Yan Ningxi over to some player.

Newbie with newbie—they’d push open the gates to love together and tumble into the river of romance. Sounded romantic as hell.

“No way? A dazzling little beauty like you—your suitors must line up from elementary school to college. Even if they don’t circle the globe, that’s gotta be enough to stretch from Huai’an to Hengyuan, right?” Qi Xuexin eyed Ming You skeptically, but the latter met her gaze without a hint of guilt. “Fine, I’ll buy it for now.”

Ming You skipped the glass and clinked her half-full beer bottle against Qi Xuexin’s. “Sister Qi tells the story, and I’ll down this half bottle.”

“Good tolerance. Can’t judge a book by its cover, Little Darling.” Qi Xuexin drained the last of her glass too. Then she dredged up that old first-love fiasco and spun it out as a joke.

Her first love was a high school classmate—the class’s recognized pure-hearted jade girl, top of the grades. Qi Xuexin chased her from sophomore year. No luck until graduation, when the girl finally relented to her persistence and agreed to give dating a shot.

But it lasted only half a month. They held hands, hugged, even tried kissing once. Straight girl gonna straight: she told Qi Xuexin flat-out, “I don’t feel that way about you.”

First love: sixteen days, done and dusted.

“I’m telling you this to lead by example—no, to make you take heed. Straights? Don’t mess with ’em. Players? Steer clear even more.”

“What about Yan Ningxi? Which is she?”

The bar’s bottled beer packed a bit more punch than the stuff at KTV. The server had already cleared the empties and brought a fresh tray.

Ming You had downed three and a half bottles; she held the fourth. If she remembered right, Qi Xuexin had matched her with four and a half. Another swig—five.

Qi Xuexin propped her head on her right hand and grabbed the sixth bottle with her left, eyes half-closed. “Yan Huahua? Neither. Back in our year, there were two national scholarship slots. She took one. Scholarships every year, straight to grad school recommendation after. A study machine like her, who treats suitors like air—how do you even tell if she’s straight, gay, or a player?”

“…”

Ming You’s focus wasn’t on Qi Xuexin’s last line. She puzzled over the stuff before: why would a genius scholar type like Yan Ningxi go into teaching?

She wasn’t knocking the profession—just figured someone like Yan Ningxi should be doing research, with better options to boot.

While she spaced out, Qi Xuexin had slyly dialed Yan Ningxi’s number and generously hit speaker, setting the phone in the middle of the table.

Ming You looked closer. The call timer ticked up second by second on the screen.

Qi Xuexin wasn’t drunk-dialing Yan Ningxi out of madness or impulse.

She ran in tougher circles than Yan Ningxi, had sized up countless people. A stubborn, tsundere girl like Ming You, once she fell for someone, would be all-in, devoted to the end.

Yan Ningxi was the same.

She had seen them together—an ineffable harmony and rapport no one else could wedge into. Nothing like Yan Ningxi alone with her, or Ming You alone with her. Pure chemistry.

If no sparks flew there, she’d eat her name backward.

“Yan Huahua, you there? Can you hear me?”

“I hear you. Where are you? At a bar again?” Yan Ningxi knew the background noise all too well.

“What else? You won’t bring Little Darling to eat or hang out with me, so I gotta entertain myself.” Qi Xuexin cupped her chin with both hands, full of grievance.

“It’s late. Be safe.” The line went quiet for seconds, then Yan Ningxi asked, “Need me to pick you up?”

“Nah, I’ve got company right now.” She even threw Ming You a flirty wink.

“Have fun then.”

“I’ll have fun, but what about you? You having fun lately?”

“You’re drunk.”

“Don’t play dumb—you know what I mean.” Qi Xuexin snatched up the phone, mashing it to her mouth like Yan Ningxi might miss it. “First time I see you bring someone home. You got the hots for the girl or what?”

“You’re overthinking.”

“Don’t be shy. I’m practically your gut worm, right?”

Yan Ningxi paused, then said, “I don’t. Mind your own business. If you like someone, date ’em proper and settle down.” Only this fast-talking confidante of hers would liken herself to a tapeworm.

Qi Xuexin shrugged and set the phone back down, tapping the screen twice with her nail. “Yan Huahua, you said it yourself—no interest. Little Darling’s right here; that’ll break her heart. With a thick-headed rock like you passing on such a pretty girl, fine, I wash my hands of it. Someone else can have her. Bye.”

She hung up.

Then she fished out a smoke and lit it. “All you tight-lipped types have a repressed wild side lurking. Lifelong singleton? Just needs a cocky, pure-hearted tease like you, Little Darling, to seduce her. If she shows tonight, you’re halfway there. Little Darling, after all I’ve done for you, how you gonna thank me?”

“Don’t call me that.”

Ming You scowled—first, embarrassed by Yan Ningxi’s “no interest”; second, pissed at being tricked by Qi Xuexin’s fake drunk act.

“Don’t like ‘Little Darling’? What then?” Qi Xuexin grinned at the girl’s sour face, flicking ash into the tray while muttering, “Ming You… Little Pomelo? Yeah, Little Pomelo’s cute.”

…

On her second time stepping into the bar, Yan Ningxi headed straight to a spot with a clear view and quickly spotted the pair. Up close, one was drunker than the other.

“No more drinking.” She took the glass from Qi Xuexin’s hand and sat on the girl’s side.

The girl’s arms folded on the table, chin resting atop them—leaving her lips pursed, cheeks rosy and flushed, a cute dopey look worlds away from the knife-behind-a-smile standoff outside the complex that evening.

Yan Ningxi brushed the girl’s cheek with the back of her hand. Burning hot. As she pulled away, the girl grabbed it and nuzzled her face against it. Qi Xuexin gaped across the table. “That PDA alone deserves a toast.”

Qi Xuexin swiped the last glass on the table and downed it. “Little Pomelo, a toast from your sister!”

Ming You’s flawless fake-drunk skills put her to shame.

Right after the call, Qi Xuexin had faced the door on watch. Spotting Yan Ningxi, she shot Ming You a look. True to form, Ming You promptly drooped her head, amping six-tenths drunk to eight.

Qi Xuexin had a point: if Yan Ningxi came, it proved Ming You had some “weight” in her heart.

Red roses? Whatever. She’d get tacky too—buy a huge bunch, grab extra vases, fill Yan Ningxi’s apartment with red roses every week.

“Sister Yan, I’ve listened to you so much, so why don’t you like me? Why take someone else’s roses? Am I that worthless?”

Qi Xuexin’s eyes bugged out.

This kid… wasn’t just good at seduction. She was a pro.

Tempted as she was for a front-row seat, she worried her meddling as third wheel might backfire and ruin this rare match.

So she played drunk, flailing her hand in the air. “Exactly! I-I think Little Pomelo’s perfect everywhere. Suitors swarming like crazy. If-I wasn’t righteously blocking ’em, those shady women would’ve snatched her up ages ago.”

Qi Xuexin’s chest-thumping bullshit nearly broke Ming You’s act.

Before Yan Ningxi arrived, Ming You had asked Qi Xuexin.

—Why help me?

Qi Xuexin didn’t mince words.

—Saw your pinned chat.

Snowy Night Cabin, a lamp lit under the eaves—that avatar, Qi Xuexin had seen it for nine years.

Ming You’s top WeChat chat was that one. Set the night she made the deal with Yan Ningxi, right before bed.

“How much did you two drink?”

Qi Xuexin held up one hand, counted five fingers, then the other. “Why only ten fingers? Too few.”

“…”

Afraid she’d slip, Ming You buried her face in her arms. What a demon in looks, childish ghost in truth! How did she even teach? How be a role model!

Yan Ningxi pressed down Qi Xuexin’s hand. “Can you walk? Up. I’ll take you home first.”

“Fine, fine, listenin’ to Teacher Yan. Home, we all go home.” Qi Xuexin grabbed her bag and staggered after Yan Ningxi. No surprise her bestie ditched her—both hands busy with Little Darling.

Nearing the door, Qi Xuexin’s arm got yanked. Next second, she toppled backward into someone’s arms.

Blue hair swept across Qi Xuexin’s face as firm hands locked around her waist. “Waited days for you. Play on tonight?”

“You? Perfect, I-I got something to give back…” Qi Xuexin shoved twice, no give.

“The long night… stretches on. Shall we?”

Yan Ningxi turned. “Qi… you staying or?”

Qi Xuexin was a “tiger.” If she didn’t like the woman, it wouldn’t be this flirty half-hearted pushback.

“I…” Someone nailed the soft spot on her waist. “Hic, you two go. I’ll drink more.”

Yan Ningxi nodded and helped the girl away. Sex was a normal need—as long as it wasn’t reckless hookups, she couldn’t control it.

In the hallway to the exit, the girl suddenly shoved, pinning Yan Ningxi against the wall.