After Flirting with the God-Tier Beautiful Tycoon - Chapter 61

The tap was left running, a clear pillar of water splashing and scattering droplets everywhere. Through the door panel, the soft, slow music from outside leaked in through the cracks. It felt like a dream.

Shen Xiaojiang stared at the person before her, her mind a total blank. It was as if a piece of yarn had been tied into a death knot, one moment it seemed to loosen, and the next, it tangled even tighter.

“It seems I really am drunk. Even my dreams feel this real,” Shen Xiaojiang said with a bitter smile.

Chen Yi’s brow furrowed slightly, her expression somber. “Shen Xiaojiang,” she called out softly.

Shen Xiaojiang pursed her lips into a smile, then lowered her head again. Looking at the tissue in her hand, her eyes turned a traitorous red once more. She turned around, crumpled the tissue into a tight ball, and threw it into the trash can. The paper slowly began to unfurl, but the creases remained sharp just like the barrier between them. Even if they wanted to smooth things over, some things simply wouldn’t unfold.

Because one of them refused to tell the truth. Chen Yi would rather be crumpled and discarded like that tissue than reveal her true thoughts.

“This… was left in my lounge.” Chen Yi opened her palm. Resting there was a small “Persimmon Bear” the one from the zipper of Shen Xiaojiang’s chest bag.

“I don’t want it anymore,” Shen Xiaojiang said flatly, glancing at it out of spite. Her heart ached sharply as she spoke. Was the only reason Chen Yi came here just to return this? Her fingers gripped her pant legs so hard her knuckles turned white.

Chen Yi placed the bear on the sink and turned to leave.

“Ginger! Ginger!” Sun Jiabao’s energetic voice echoed from outside, her footsteps drawing closer.

Chen Yi froze for a second. Seeing her expression in the mirror, Shen Xiaojiang’s face went cold. She grabbed Chen Yi’s wrist and dragged her toward the back of the restroom. Chen Yi didn’t resist; she let herself be pulled away. If only she were pulling me toward her future, Chen Yi thought.

Shen Xiaojiang angrily shoved her into the last stall. In the grey cubicle, the light was dim. No matter the circumstances, she still wanted to protect Chen Yi. When Chen Yi wasn’t being sycophantic, her eyes were breathtaking piteous and moving, instinctively triggering a fierce desire to protect her.

With a click, Shen Xiaojiang locked the door with her back to Chen Yi. They stood back-to-back, holding their breath, neither saying a word.

“Ginger?” Sun Jiabao passed the sinks and glanced inside. “Ginger, are you in there?”

Silence, save for the dripping water.

“Gin…ger..” Sun Jiabao raised her voice.

“What’s wrong? Where’s your classmate?” The cousin’s voice followed, full of concern.

“I don’t know, she was just here,” Sun Jiabao pouted. The cousin symbolically checked a few stalls before saying, “She’s probably not here. Why don’t you call her?”

As they left, Shen Xiaojiang pulled out her phone and silenced it. Only after Sun Jiabao’s call timed out did she put it back in her pocket. Silence returned, save for the cicadas outside and the occasional breeze.

“Um…” Chen Yi started to speak but hesitated.

“Is there anything else you want to say?” Shen Xiaojiang hated her hesitation. She wanted Chen Yi to say the words she longed to hear.

But Chen Yi didn’t. “Thank you for… helping me out just now.” Her tone was flat, devoid of emotion.

Shen Xiaojiang ground her teeth and closed her eyes, her heart twisting. “You know that’s not what I want to hear,” she whispered, her voice laced with anger.

Chen Yi remained silent. Outside, the wind picked up, rustling the leaves, but the heat wouldn’t dissipate. When the wind died down, the cicadas only sounded louder.

“I don’t know what you want to hear. You can tell me, don’t make me guess…”

“Auntie!” Shen Xiaojiang’s lips trembled. She bit down until she tasted the faint, metallic tang of blood like rust scraped off an old doorframe. She had intended to call her by her full name, but the word changed at the last second. “Right now, who is making who guess?” Her hands were balled into fists, nails digging into her palms. It hurt, but not as much as Chen Yi’s attitude.

“Shen Xiaojiang,” Chen Yi turned slowly, her gaze traveling up to the back of Shen Xiaojiang’s head, her eyes filled with unreadable emotions. “Can you stop being so childish?”

That line again. Shen Xiaojiang wondered if Chen Yi was capable of saying anything else.

“Childish or not, you don’t like me anyway, do you?” Shen Xiaojiang’s voice sounded like shattered glass sharp and painful to hear. To tear oneself apart just to hurt someone else was meaningless.

“We… it’s impossible,” Chen Yi said, her voice low and soft, but lacking its usual warmth. Did her words ever have warmth? Shen Xiaojiang felt a chill.

“Why?”

Chen Yi’s eyes flickered. In the cramped space, she took a step back, still staring at Shen Xiaojiang’s back. “You and I are different. We aren’t…”

Shen Xiaojiang cut her off: “Not from the same world?”

“Right. Not from the same world,” Chen Yi repeated firmly.

As soon as she said it, Shen Xiaojiang slammed her fist against the door panel with a dull thud. Chen Yi looked at her reddened hand, her eyes filled with heartache.

When others said such things, it seemed laughable. But coming from her own mouth, it wasn’t funny anymore. She knew her own background. Those who called her “Seventh Mistress” knew exactly how she climbed to her current position selling smiles, hosting drinks, flattering and fawning, telling more lies than she had eaten meals. She often thought people like her would go to hell. Could anyone truly love her? No one ever had, and no one ever would.

Shen Xiaojiang was the exception the first bit of kindness the world had ever granted her, and likely the last. So, what good could come from binding someone so pure to someone as stained as herself? She shouldn’t be selfish for a moment of pleasure and clip Shen Xiaojiang’s wings. Shen Xiaojiang was a bird flying toward the light she shouldn’t be grounded. She should fly over mountains and seas, see the most beautiful sunsets, and wait for the most brilliant sunrises.

Someone as good as Shen Xiaojiang deserved a better future and a more suitable partner.

“Aren’t you curious how I knew your birthday?” Chen Yi felt her heart tearing bit by bit. Shen Xiaojiang’s fist remained pressed against the door. Chen Yi swallowed hard. “It wasn’t Sun Jiabao who told me. I investigated you.”

Shen Xiaojiang listened in silence.

“I suspected you were a mole planted by a competitor. Jiabao’s family is the closest I have to kin, and the most likely way to get to me. My original plan was to keep my distance once I found out the truth.”

“Keep your distance?” Shen Xiaojiang felt lost. “And now? Have you found the truth?”

“Yes, I have,” Chen Yi answered honestly. Seeing Shen Xiaojiang’s shoulders tremble, she paused. she hated saying things that hurt her. But unknowingly, every sentence was a blow. Perhaps hatred was easier to let go of than love. Let her hate me, then.

Chen Yi spoke again: “You really are naive. I don’t have anyone like you around me. Using you as a pastime… it was actually quite nice.”

“A pastime?” Shen Xiaojiang turned around, teeth clenched. “How can you say that?”

In that moment, Shen Xiaojiang caught the hesitation and longing in Chen Yi’s eyes. As soon as their gazes met, Chen Yi looked away, forcing a cold tone: “I’ve always been like this.”

Suddenly, a shadow fell over her. Shen Xiaojiang pinned her against the grey door. She gripped Chen Yi’s wrist tightly, her pained face inches from Chen Yi’s. Neither spoke. Chen Yi slowly looked up, lacking confidence, afraid to meet Shen Xiaojiang’s eyes. She feared that if she did, Shen Xiaojiang would see right through her lies.

Shen Xiaojiang’s eyes were wide, her pupils dark and deep like a nocturnal sea, silent and mysterious, brewing a giant, all consuming wave. The wind continued to blow outside, casting blurred shadows of leaves against the frosted window.

After an unknown amount of time, the lights in the restroom went out. Shen Xiaojiang’s phone was likely buzzing with missed calls, but she didn’t care. In this moment, her entire world was Chen Yi.

“Shen Xiaojiang, the lights are off…”

Before Chen Yi could finish, Shen Xiaojiang leaned down and pressed her lips against Chen Yi’s cold ones, transferring her heat. Shen Xiaojiang’s kiss was warm but carried a crashing, violent anger as if using this kiss to punish Chen Yi for lying.

“Shen… Xiaojiang…”

Chen Yi resisted, but her words were repeatedly swallowed. The younger “hunter” was strong and patient. With one hand cradling the back of Chen Yi’s head and the other pinning her wrist, Chen Yi was held fast, unable to move or escape.

Shen Xiaojiang didn’t speak or stop. She tightened her arms, boxing Chen Yi into that tiny space. Chen Yi’s heart raced, her face flushed, and her lips grew numb. She tried to claw at Shen Xiaojiang’s clothes, but to no avail. The hunter was showing her through action who was in control of this game. Without her permission, Chen Yi wasn’t allowed to give up.

“Shen…” Chen Yi’s voice was completely lost in the sound of their breathing.

Only then did the hunter pull back, satisfied. Chen Yi gasped for air, the corners of her eyes damp, shimmering with a fragile light in the darkness. Shen Xiaojiang pressed her forehead against Chen Yi’s, her warm breath hitting Chen Yi’s eyelids.

“You’re lying.”

Chen Yi let the cool air fill her lungs, clutching Shen Xiaojiang’s clothes and refusing to let go. She didn’t speak a silence that felt like a confession. Shen Xiaojiang kissed the corners of her eyes, drying the moisture like a puppy licking a wound. Their breaths tangled, making Chen Yi crave more.

Shen Xiaojiang’s lips brushed Chen Yi’s cheek and nipped at her earlobe. In a voice only the two of them could hear, she whispered: “How can you be so cruel?”

“You have such a cruel heart.”

“How can you do this to me?”

“I like you so much…”

The fierce hunter from moments ago had lost her edge. She leaned against Chen Yi, as obedient and vulnerable as an abandoned puppy. Eventually, Shen Xiaojiang released Chen Yi’s wrists. Her wrists ached from the force, and she reached up with trembling fingers to touch Shen Xiaojiang’s face. She said nothing.

Suddenly, she felt wetness. This was the first time she had truly seen Shen Xiaojiang cry. Chen Yi’s fingers paused. After a long while, she still said nothing.

As the night deepened, the black qipao hung over the door panel, its hem fluttering in the breeze from the window. Parts of it were torn, even shredded. The hunter’s claws were sharp she wouldn’t let the prey off easy. She had to toy with it until it was breathless before slowly savoring the meal.

As time passed, breaths became shorter and more exhausted, but the agonizing, lingering entanglement refused to end.

“Shen Xiaojiang, are you… are you going to eat me?” Chen Yi’s voice was broken, struggling for air.

Shen Xiaojiang turned her around, her canines grinding slowly against the delicate skin of Chen Yi’s nape. “If I could, I really would eat you up.”

Chen Yi panted, finding the strength to laugh. “How do you want to eat me? Deep fried or braised?”

Though it wasn’t the best time for such a conversation, Shen Xiaojiang patiently stole her breath again, leaving marks across her pale skin.

“Stir-fried,” she said.

“Huh?” Chen Yi had lost her temper and her strength, letting Shen Xiaojiang move her as she pleased, letting “red plums” bloom across her skin. “What did you say?”

Shen Xiaojiang used a bit too much force, nearly biting through the “red bean.” “I said, I’m going to stir fry you.”

“Fry you until not a drop of water is left, fry you until you’re soft and wilted, then eat you bit by bit with the rice wine my mom brews.” After saying this, Shen Xiaojiang buried her head lower.

“Okay,” Chen Yi’s voice was soft and weak, as if she were drunk or drifting into sleep.

When Shen Xiaojiang lifted her head again, her face was covered in sweat, looking as though she’d just finished an intense match or come in from a heavy rain. She rested her head in the crook of Chen Yi’s neck and asked slowly, “Auntie, do you want to taste yourself?”

Chen Yi’s hands gripped Shen Xiaojiang’s ears, her fingertips unable to exert any pressure. She said lazily, “You taste for me.”

“That’s not fair.” With that, Shen Xiaojiang captured Chen Yi’s lips, sliding past her teeth to explore even deeper, hidden paths.

Between the highs and lows, the long releases and the drifting away, the first light of dawn appeared, and the sky began to pale. A pool of fresh green, a courtyard full of pear blossoms.

Auntie: Does “stir fried” have a special meaning?

Ginger: What do you think? Auntie: Why is my qipao on the door?

Ginger: I took it off.

Auntie: Then… Ginger (covering her mouth): Shh, don’t talk. Do what you’re supposed to do.

Guess: So the question is what is Auntie “supposed” to do?