When Ji Huaqing came back, she saw the free-spirited woman sprawled on the sofa, a signature smile on her face like a layer of camouflage. After one glance, Ji Huaqing’s gaze shifted to Shi Xu.
Ji Huaqing didn’t know Shi Xu, and she didn’t know Shi Xu’s standing in Jing City. With a casual glance, she could tell that Shi Xu was different from Miss Cheng and Xiang Yunlai.
The smile Shi Xu gave before leaving was a lot like the smile Gu Yining wore on ordinary days—careless and cold.
Perhaps she and Gu Yining were the same kind of person.
Only after Shi Xu had gone did Gu Yining stand up, the smile fading from her face. “Let’s go home.”
“I booked them a room,” Ji Huaqing said. “I told the front desk that they’re drunk, to send hangover soup and keep an eye on them.”
“Okay.” Gu Yining nodded. Her face was flushed, cheeks tinged like rosy clouds—clearly tipsy.
Ji Huaqing: “…”
She’d only been gone half an hour. How had Gu Yining gotten this drunk?
Ji Huaqing couldn’t wrap her head around it. She reached out to support her, but Gu Yining pushed her away and headed straight for the entrance.
Hotel entrances never lacked taxis. Gu Yining raised a hand to hail one, and a red car pulled up in front of her.
The window rolled down, revealing Shi Xu’s flamboyant smile. The lights at the entrance weren’t bright. In the dim illumination, Gu Yining wore her customary Chinese-style shirt, her figure tall and slender, her face, neck, and even her collarbones flushed pink.
Shi Xu looked at her. “A ride?”
“No, thanks.” Gu Yining refused with a shallow smile, her lashes seeming damp, as if tears were about to fall. She glanced back at Ji Huaqing behind her. “Let’s go home.”
At this moment, Gu Yining looked very easy to bully—like a white rabbit wearing a wolfskin, her disguise discarded.
Shi Xu tilted her head to watch her, like someone admiring a painting of a beautiful woman. Soon, someone helped the beauty into a taxi and swiftly left the wolf’s den.
In the taxi, Gu Yining closed her eyes, her lashes trembling lightly, her thoughts unknowable.
Ji Huaqing didn’t speak, didn’t ask who Shi Xu was. She quietly watched the scenery pass by the window.
To know a city’s changes, you only had to look at its high-rises: the bustling commercial streets, the buildings soaring into the sky—scene after scene, place after place, all reflecting the transformations of the era.
Ji Huaqing’s memories were slowly changing. Many newly built towers had replaced the old neighborhoods. This was the power of the nation.
Jing City at night was like a poison—one that made you addicted.
“Teacher Ji, is it pretty?”
In the dimness, the person opened her eyes, the end of her question rising playfully, as if reminding Ji Huaqing that someone was still beside her.
Ji Huaqing froze briefly, then turned. The smile at the corner of the other woman’s lips widened. She asked again: “Is it pretty?”
Ji Huaqing said, “Pretty. The poem says: towers rise high, piercing the clouds—jade edifices of jade and marble brave the wind. Today’s splendor is worthy of the history books.”
“Teacher Ji still speaks so beautifully.”
Gu Yining’s head was spinning. Hearing her recite poetry always gave her the feeling of being back in the classroom. Ji Huaqing could lecture for a whole period, quoting classics without pause, her voice so gentle.
It was like a dream—hazy and sinful.
She said, “One of these days, I’ll take you somewhere. To bungee jump.”
She wanted to bungee jump, wanted to do it together with Ji Huaqing, to leap into the air, to let go of everything, leaving only the person before her.
Hearing her childish words, Ji Huaqing’s smile deepened. She didn’t take her drunken talk to heart.
The taxi stopped. Gu Yining pushed the door open and got out. After two steps, taking a breath of fresh air, she turned back to look at Ji Huaqing. “You didn’t ask who that woman just now was?”
Teacher Ji, you should have asked.
Ji Huaqing pocketed her phone and stood before her, her eyelid twitching involuntarily. Her gaze followed the voice and settled at the corner of the other woman’s lips.
Ji Huaqing asked, “Who was that woman?”
“Shi Xu, of the Shi family. Do you know the Shi family of Jing City?”
“No.” Ji Huaqing shook her head. She was just an ordinary person, with no spare energy to pay attention to the affairs of the rich. So whether that woman’s surname was Zhao or Shi had nothing to do with her.
But one thing she did know: tonight, Shi Xu had come for Gu Yining.
She had to admit—Gu Yining was very likeable.
Gu Yining said, “The Shi family saw the real estate business as a sure thing back in the early 2000s and made a killing. Now it’s gone downhill, so they’ve turned to tech. That’s why she wants to work with me. But I refused. I know the moment she takes a stake, I’ll lose control. I don’t want that. I turned her down. Shi Xu… that woman is terrifying.”
“You’re praising her?” Ji Huaqing noticed that her tone was different from when she spoke of Cheng Qingtang.
Gu Yining smiled at her with curved eyes. “It’s appreciation. Like how you appreciate Zhou Hui’s math teaching ability. Do you understand? Appreciation and affection are different things.”
“You were happy to see Shi Xu?”
“No. I downed two big glasses of baijiu (Chinese white liquor). It’s the alcohol—I’m excited.”
Gu Yining stood before her, every breath smelling of liquor.
Ji Huaqing looked at her quietly, feeling something amiss. Gu Yining’s high spirits didn’t come solely from the alcohol. Part of it had to do with Shi Xu.
To Gu Yining, Shi Xu was someone a little different.
The woman standing under the moonlight—cold, and a little wild.
Ji Huaqing said, “Drink less next time.”
“You should too—quit smoking.” Gu Yining laughed with abandon, her eyes clear beneath, as if glowing, without the earlier indifference.
She was happy like a child.
Ji Huaqing felt joy radiating from her. She walked over and stopped one step away. “Why are you so happy?”
“Because when I’m drunk, I can take the chance to kiss you.”
Gu Yining said it outright, taking that one step—the final step between them—her eyes fixed tightly on Teacher Ji’s features. “I want to kiss you.”
Gu Yining’s gaze tightened bit by bit, urgency and desire swimming in her eyes.
She was drunk. She felt she could do whatever she wanted. Or maybe she didn’t know what she was doing at all.
Either way, she was very excited.
When Ji Huaqing heard those words, a flicker of amusement rose in her. “I can always refuse.”
“Do you actually want to refuse?” Gu Yining stood straight before her. “What’s wrong with me? I’m not sick. I have a lot of money. I’m this good-looking. What fails your standards?”
She was like a child, being stubborn and unreasonable.
Ji Huaqing’s smile carried indulgence, like when she’d gone to the internet café to find her all those years ago, willing to run wild and make trouble alongside her.
She said, “You’re beautiful. You have no flaws. You’re in high demand—Cheng Qingtang likes you, strangers can’t stop staring at you, Shi Xu likes you too. Everyone likes you.”
“So why don’t you like me?” Gu Yining stared at her stubbornly, her eyes dark and obscure, the corner of her mouth lifting unbidden. “Why not?”
She was a little crazy.
Ji Huaqing said, “Right now, you’re very charming.”
Gu Yining leaned in quietly to meet her eyes. “Then… can I kiss you?”
“No.” Ji Huaqing refused.
The curve of Gu Yining’s lips faded little by little. Just as the tide was about to swallow her whole, Ji Huaqing pointed at the camera overhead. “There’s a camera here.”
Gu Yining looked up, then lowered her head as if searching for something. “I’ll smash it. I’ll go talk to the property management tomorrow and pay for it.”
Rich and willful. Ji Huaqing laughed. “You can go home and kiss me there.”
“No, I like it here.” Gu Yining kept looking down.
The upscale neighborhood was very clean—where would she find a big rock? Gu Yining searched the area twice over and found nothing. She took out her phone and dialed the property management office.
After two buzzes, she said, “Turn off that camera. You’re violating my privacy!”
The person who answered was a middle-aged man. “Hello, President Gu. Which camera?”
Which one? Gu Yining turned her head for a look, then said, “The one at my front door.”
The man explained earnestly, “President Gu, that camera isn’t part of our management zone. It was installed privately by you. That time when relatives from your hometown came to make trouble, you had your own people install it and notified our office. We don’t have the authority to turn it off.”
Ji Huaqing’s shoulders shook with laughter. She snatched the phone out of her hand. “Sorry, she’s had too much to drink. Sorry to bother you.”
She hung up.
Gu Yining was still locked in battle with the camera. “It’s mine, so I’ll smash it.”
“With what?”
“My phone.”
Ji Huaqing held both phones and took two steps back. “Stop fooling around. Let’s go home. Turn it off first—kiss tomorrow.”
“You think I’m stupid? If there’s nothing tonight, tomorrow will come? You think it’s like meals—three a day?” Gu Yining dug in her heels and refused to go, craning her neck at the camera in the tree by the door. “I think it’s picking a fight with me.”
“Mm, it’s picking a fight with you.” Ji Huaqing echoed her, then asked, “How does this camera turn off? Teach me, and I’ll turn it off.”
Gu Yining racked her brains, then shook her head. “I forgot. There’s a manual at home. I’ll go find the manual.”
She turned and headed for the house on her own.
Ji Huaqing glanced back at the camera, wondering if it had playback. She’d make a copy tomorrow.
The two entered the house one after the other. Auntie Wang was still there, cooking hangover soup. Seeing her come in, she let out an “oh” and hurried over to support her. “How did you get drunk again? Madam won’t be happy if she finds out.”
“She’s asleep. She won’t know. Is Ningning asleep?” Gu Yining kicked off her shoes, leaning crookedly against Auntie Wang. She looked back to confirm Ji Huaqing had come in, then went inside.
Once in, she collapsed onto the sofa and squinted up at the light overhead.
Auntie Wang went over and pulled her up. “Little ancestor, don’t sleep out here. Let me help you to your room. The air conditioning out here is cold. Go back to your room.”
Auntie Wang helped the drunk woman upstairs, then turned back to greet Ji Huaqing. “Miss Ji, would you keep an eye on the stove in the kitchen?”
“Alright.” Ji Huaqing nodded.
Auntie Wang helped the tipsy woman upstairs. Ji Huaqing watched their backs, then placed both phones on the dining table and walked toward the kitchen.
As she turned, one phone went “ding.” On reflex, she turned back to look. It was Gu Yining’s phone.
She glanced at it. The screen jumped up the name “Shi Xu.”
She didn’t read it. She turned and went into the kitchen.
Auntie Wang came down quickly. Ji Huaqing went back up to the second floor, bringing both phones with her before she left.
Gu Yining had fallen asleep, lying in bed under a thin blanket, one leg exposed. Her fair skin lay against the milky fleece of the blanket. Ji Huaqing glanced at it, then reached over to cover her.
