After the Nerd Marked the Top Omega - Chapter 32.1

After Pei Yunci asked the question, the girl didn’t answer. Her clear, moist eyes were quiet and beautiful, her gaze entirely focused on her.

“Stunned?” Pei Yunci’s eyebrows lifted slightly. She held up three fingers and asked, “How many is this?”

The sunlight outside the window was dazzling, and Fang Xu felt her vision was a little blurry and doubled. She squinted, looked closely for a moment, and barely managed to make out, “Three.”

“Wrong, it’s four.” Pei Yunci let go of the tucked-in pinky finger, completely unaware that she was teasing someone. “You’re drunk.”

Fang Xu’s long eyelashes moved slowly, and she then felt that it really looked like four, and that she had indeed been mistaken. So, she nodded, “I’m drunk.”

Pei Yunci chuckled, leaning against the wine cabinet, finding conversation with a drunk Fang Xu much more interesting than mixing a drink.

She picked up a glass cup and gently swirled it. The liquid inside was a transparent, light amber color under the light. Fang Xu’s eyes followed the moving circle of light on the glass wall, like a cat chasing a ball of yarn.

Pei Yunci watched for a while, holding the wine glass, and asked with interest, “You’re drunk, do you still want a drink?”

After getting drunk, it was as if the brain’s processing system had slowed down significantly. After a moment of reaction, Fang Xu finally understood the meaning.

She looked at the glass of liquor, and then at the person holding the glass.

Meeting her gaze, Pei Yunci was like a very patient hunter and repeated the question, “Do you want to continue drinking?”

I’m already drunk, I can’t drink anymore, and I don’t even like drinking. Just refuse, Fang Xu’s slowly functioning mind provided the answer. But just as the words were about to come out, another thought suddenly surfaced: This is wine mixed by Pei Yunci.

A moment later, Fang Xu nodded. Meaning she wanted to continue.

This answer was somewhat unexpected for Pei Yunci. “You still want to drink?”

Fang Xu nodded again to confirm, responding faster than the first time.

“How did I not know before that you were a little lush?” Pei Yunci moved the wine glass further away and then placed a glass of warm water into her hand. “Drink this.”

Drunk Fang Xu was somewhat like a robot operating on commands; she would emerge from her quiet state whenever a sentence was spoken to her.

She looked down at the cup in her hand. It wasn’t wine, but since it was given by Pei Yunci, she obediently drank some.

After drinking, Fang Xu looked at her again and slowly uttered two words: “I’m not.”

“Hmm?”

Pei Yunci recalled their conversation and understood what the girl meant. She chuckled, “You’re drunk and still asking for wine; isn’t that a little lush?”

Fang Xu listened to her speaking at first, but didn’t finish listening. Her attention naturally shifted and fell upon the opening and closing lips of the person in front of her—thin and pale, with a beautiful curve.

“I am.” She changed her mind again, thinking the other person might be right.

Pei Yunci hadn’t expected the other person to be like this when drunk—even more docile than before she got drunk. She called out, “Little lush?”

Her voice was very gentle. Fang Xu only felt her heart racing extraordinarily fast, seemingly overpowering all other sounds, leaving only the “thump, thump, thump” in her chest.

“Mhm.” She responded.

It made her want to tease her even more.

Pei Yunci softly said, “…You blockhead.”

Fang Xu parted her lips, sounding a little wronged, and uncharacteristically refuted her words: “I’m not a blockhead.”

“Alright, not a blockhead,” Pei Yunci didn’t argue with a drunk person about such things, and asked her, “Do you want to leave?”

Since she got the person drunk, she couldn’t just leave her here.

Drunk people process past memories and current scenes in fragments. Because of the previous events, Fang Xu equated leaving here with ending the game.

Hearing this, she shook her head and said, “No.”

Moreover, she remembered the truth or dare game and didn’t want Pei Yunci to go play. It would be best for her to stay here with her.

Pei Yunci hadn’t guessed her thought process yet and asked, “Why not?”

Fang Xu thought for a moment and said, “I want to work on competition problems.”

Pei Yunci: “…”

“Bookworm.”

A qualifier needed to be added before “blockhead.”

Hearing this, Fang Xu’s clear, moist eyes moved. Her pupils were dark and watery, like beautiful black obsidian. There was no sign of distress or anger, only a look of contemplation, wondering why the other person would suddenly say that.

She had heard this kind of evaluation before in high school and college and hadn’t taken it to heart, though she occasionally felt a bit puzzled. She was only doing her own thing, whether studying or working, and wasn’t bothering anyone else, yet they still felt the need to evaluate her, sigh, and then go evaluate someone else.

But Pei Yunci was different.

When the other person said it, Fang Xu didn’t feel that way, nor did she feel puzzled; she could only sense the other person’s gentleness.

She even wanted to hear it a few more times.

This thought flashed through her mind and then disappeared without a trace.

“Oh.” Fang Xu accepted that nickname as well.

“…”

The girl was completely drunk, and it was unrealistic to stay here and work on competition problems. Pei Yunci said, “Even if you don’t want to leave, we have to. Are you coming with me?”

After taking over the Pei Corporation, her personality had become more dominant and controlling, and she generally disliked others going against her will. The question was an inquiry, but it didn’t give the other person a choice; regardless of Fang Xu’s answer, she would have to follow her.

Fang Xu felt dizzy, and her feet moved slightly, wanting to get closer to the person to see clearly.

Pei Yunci, worried that she might fall, subconsciously stepped back, her back against the wine cabinet. From the outside, it looked as if the girl was trapping her in an embrace.

“You lost, you lost! It’s your turn to drink, right? You can’t get out of it this time!”

“Drink, drink, drink! Everyone’s watching!”

“What kind of question is so hard to answer that you’d rather drink than answer?”

“…”

The people outside must have switched games. The sounds of cheers and jeers were getting louder and louder, clearly audible even with some distance between them.

Pei Yunci lightly tapped the wine cabinet with her knuckle. The heavy wooden cabinet made a soft sound, bringing her back to her senses.

She looked at the person in front of her, leaned in slightly, drawing their distance even closer: “Good student, what do you want to do?”

With less than ten centimeters separating them, their reflections were mirrored in each other’s pupils, their eyelashes were clearly visible, and their warm breaths mingled, carrying a faint, subtle scent of alcohol.

Pei Yunci didn’t like being too close to people. But when the girl approached, she felt no aversion at all.

Fang Xu watched intently, not dodging or blinking. She looked at the other person’s dense eyelashes, moving slightly like a fluttering butterfly, looked at the other person’s cool, pale skin, high nose bridge, and light crimson lips.

She had learned so many adjectives before, but after seeing this, her mind was blank, leaving only the word “beautiful.”

Fang Xu suddenly spoke up: “I want to.”

Pei Yunci brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, said nothing more, and waited curiously for her next words.

“I want to…”

Before she finished speaking, Fang Xu lost her footing and lunged forward, falling onto the other person’s shoulder, her warm lips brushing past the other’s earlobe.

Pei Yunci shifted slightly and held her steady, realizing that she wasn’t dizzy, just too drunk to stand.

At this point, she no longer insisted on getting the answer. With one hand, she tore a memo from the counter and wrote a message on it to leave here.

She would contact the waiter when they were about to finish and ask them to give the memo to the R&D department.

After writing, Pei Yunci helped the person leave through the back door of the private kitchen, ensuring they wouldn’t attract too much attention.

Entering November, the temperature dropped sharply. It was as if Jiangcheng had skipped autumn and gone straight to winter. People on the streets had also changed into thicker clothes.

Stepping outside, a gust of wind made the air feel cold.

Drunk Fang Xu wasn’t crying or making a fuss; her face was just exceptionally red, and walking in a straight line was a bit difficult. When she felt cold, she instinctively leaned towards Pei Yunci, like a small animal seeking warmth in winter, wanting someone to block the wind for her.

Pei Yunci looked at the person beside her: “Now you’re being honest.”

Usually, if it weren’t for a mark, the other person would awkwardly keep a three-meter distance from her, as if she would eat people.

After a short silence, the drunk person turned into a broken record: “I am very honest.”

Pei Yunci couldn’t help but curve her lips into a smile.

It didn’t take much effort on the road, and she brought the person to her apartment.

In the time it took to pour a glass of water, Fang Xu was already asleep on the sofa, eyes closed, quiet and peaceful, with no unnecessary sounds.

Pei Yunci watched her for a while, thinking, She’s easy to look after even when she’s drunk.

However, the girl was not suited to drink alone with others.

She would be too easy to deceive.

When she woke up again, everything in Fang Xu’s sight was dark, and her head was throbbing a little.

She was in a daze for three seconds before her memory slowly returned. She had only tasted a sip of the wine Pei Yunci chose and had become so drunk and tipsy that she was brought here to the apartment. She wasn’t someone who blacked out when drinking, and she could remember clearly all the silly things she had said.

Fang Xu covered her face.

Just when she thought she couldn’t get any more embarrassed in front of Pei Yunci, something even more embarrassing was bound to happen.

There were no lights on in the apartment, and the sky was dark. Both inside and outside the room were dim.

Fang Xu turned on the light and checked the time. She hadn’t slept for a short while; it was already seven o’clock in the evening, and Pei Yunci had left her a message.

【Pei Yunci: Something came up at the company. I’m not at the apartment.】

Seeing this message, the anxiety that had been hanging over Fang Xu since she woke up finally eased a little; she wasn’t as nervous anymore.

If the other person were in front of her right now, she wouldn’t know what to say.

Since Pei Yunci wasn’t there, Fang Xu didn’t stay long in the apartment. She grabbed her schoolbag and returned to school, buying a hand-grabbed pancake on the way for dinner, and took a picture to send to Yiyi.

The child hadn’t replied during self-study time; otherwise, she would definitely ask whether it was better than the ones at home.

Entering the dormitory, the pancake was already finished.

Tang Xingxing saw her and curiously asked, “Xuxu, why is your face so red?”

Fang Xu touched it. It was a little warmer than usual. “Is it?”

“Yes, it’s very obvious.” Tang Xingxing nodded, asking worriedly, “Look in the mirror. You’re not running a fever, are you?”

Fang Xu looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was indeed noticeably red, but she didn’t feel physically unwell. “The company had a celebration party today, and I drank some wine. It should be because of that.”

“That’s good,” Tang Xingxing could now smell a faint scent of alcohol. “I read a popular science article before that said people who easily get red faces when drinking have low activity of a certain substance in their body, making them poor at metabolizing alcohol, so they shouldn’t drink too much, or it could easily lead to alcohol poisoning.”

She couldn’t remember her professional knowledge, but these random tidbits of information she picked up seemed to stick particularly well in her mind.

This was the first time Fang Xu had heard this. “So that’s how it is. I usually don’t drink much, don’t worry.”

At the police station when she was fourteen, she smelled alcohol on the perpetrator. For the next two or three years, she would feel a bit scared when passing places with a strong smell of alcohol. That fear gradually faded as she grew older.

If it had been wine mixed by someone else this time, she would likely have refused outright.

“Of course, I know that,” Tang Xingxing wouldn’t doubt her friend. “You’re not a fan of drinking. Compared to drinking, you probably prefer being with professional problems.”

Fang Xu chuckled, “There’s nothing bad about professional problems.”

They had standard answers and verifiable solutions, and every line of code had its own significance. She liked that certainty.

“We mortals are ultimately different from the experts,” Tang Xingxing, having finally cleared up her postgraduate recommendation matters, was now relatively free. “I don’t want to see anything related to my major anymore.”

“Rest well for a while,” Fang Xu knew she had been busy lately. “I’m going to take a shower.”

The smell of alcohol was very faint and had mostly dissipated by now, but she still felt a bit uncomfortable.

“Go ahead, go ahead. I’ve already showered.” Tang Xingxing plunged back into her game.

After showering, Fang Xu put on her pajamas and sat down at her spot, checking the content of Operating a Small Food Stall.

The game now had over a hundred thousand players, and her game had climbed to third place on the rookie chart. As a game that had never spent money on promotion, its excellence was undeniable.

Support