After Transmigrating as a Scumbag Alpha, I Marked the Crazy Hotshot – Chapter 72
by Little PandaDrink less
Cheng Jiqing pulled the person out of her embrace and lowered her eyes to look.
Bai Xin’s smooth cheeks were flushed pink, her lips the color of dried rose petals. Her full lips, with a subtle lip bead, were slightly parted.
The smell of alcohol was rampant, yet her eyes were clear.
Not drunk, but she had drunk quite a bit.
“How much did you drink?” Cheng Jiqing supported her back with one hand.
“A lot.”
“Had a good chat?”
After the conversation with Cheng Jing, the original owner’s emotions had become a tangled mess. Cheng Jiqing felt a dullness within her, and her words lacked their usual liveliness, but she was still gentle when facing Bai Xin.
Bai Xin: “Not happy. You didn’t reply to me at all.”
Cheng Jiqing paused. “I was talking just now, I didn’t notice.”
“So you didn’t think of me for this past hour?”
Having drunk, she was a bit more brazenly unreasonable, mixed with a captivating cuteness.
Lately, Bai Xin always liked to ask these kinds of questions.
Cheng Jiqing smiled and said, “I thought of you in my heart.”
She wasn’t annoyed, patiently responding again and again.
Her palm rested on the thin, milky-white knit V-neck sweater, which revealed Bai Xin’s collarbones. Further down was unseen, but being so close, the sensation was astonishing. Below was a leather skirt, and underneath, flesh-colored stockings.
Bai Xin rarely wore stockings; Cheng Jiqing had only seen it once or twice. This weather wasn’t suitable for them, but Bai Xin had put on an ankle-length down jacket when they went out, so Cheng Jiqing hadn’t said much.
Bai Xin didn’t continue to dwell on that question. She didn’t say that for the past hour, her thoughts had constantly been with her. The longer Cheng Jiqing didn’t reply to her messages, the greater her unease grew.
It wasn’t just because Cheng Jing was there.
She also wanted a certain kind of response.
Urgently, unable to wait even a second.
It was as if to prove that Cheng Jiqing treated her the same as always, that it wouldn’t change day after day.
After drinking, those thoughts were like glue, clinging tightly.
All sorts of mischievous ideas popped up.
She took Cheng Jiqing’s hand, pulled up the hem of her own top, and put Cheng Jiqing’s hand directly inside.
She couldn’t quite grasp it; Bai Xin’s hand covered hers, a layered touch, and an astonishingly hot, spongy softness welled up from between her fingers.
It was so warm that Cheng Jiqing couldn’t bear to pull her hand back. “Tang Jia is still next door celebrating her birthday.”
“Mm.”
She guided Cheng Jiqing’s fingers all the way in.
It seemed to be her reply to that statement—she didn’t care.
When Bai Xin was in the mood, she always had a wild streak, as long as it wasn’t in front of others, regardless of the place.
Cheng Jiqing’s hand felt like it was about to melt from the heat. She said, “Someone might come into the private room.”
Bai Xin pressed down on the back of her hand. The force was too much, and she frowned in pain, her forehead resting against Cheng Jiqing’s collarbone. “They won’t… I booked it out.”
It wasn’t originally for that, just so she could hug Cheng Jiqing immediately when she came out.
After a few seconds, Cheng Jiqing finally said, “Can we do it when we get back?”
She had things on her mind, and with Cheng Jing on one side and Tang Jia and Zhou Yushu on the other, how could she concentrate?
Bai Xin straightened up and looked at Cheng Jiqing steadily for a moment, her interest diminishing by more than half. “Unhappy? What did you talk to her about just now?”
Her hand loosened.
“Just the things you know about.” Cheng Jiqing said, “I think I need to be quiet for a while. Why don’t you go back and celebrate Tang Jia’s birthday first?”
Cheng Jiqing pulled her hand out from under the clothes.
Her emotions had fluctuated too much just now, and she felt uncomfortably stuffy at the moment; she needed to calm down.
“You don’t need me to accompany you.” A declarative sentence, yet the interrogative meaning was profound.
“Isn’t it Tang Jia’s birthday? It’s not like she’s dragging you away.”
“Why can’t she?”
Cheng Jiqing was taken aback, her palm still warm. Before she could say anything, Bai Xin said, “You just want to be alone, you don’t need me, do you?”
Bai Xin didn’t realize her tone had already turned sour.
Cheng Jiqing’s mood was already low, and she was somewhat affected by this questioning. Her speaking speed couldn’t help but quicken: “Then you’ll come back with me?”
Not a single word of argument.
Yet the atmosphere suddenly dropped.
Inexplicably.
Neither said anything. After a moment, there was a knock on the door from across the hall, as if helping them break the silence.
Her high heels shifted back. Bai Xin said faintly, “You go back first.”
Cheng Jiqing stood at the entrance of the private room, watching Bai Xin enter the room next door before retracting her gaze.
She knew Bai Xin was unhappy, but she had indeed been provoked by that misunderstanding and the questioning tone, and her temper had flared.
The peace of these past few days finally showed the lingering traces of needing repair.
Cheng Jiqing sighed and headed towards the restroom.
Coming out of the restroom, she stood at the sink. From the corner of her eye, she saw a figure in the mirror walk up beside her from behind.
“Little CEO Cheng, what a coincidence.”
Cheng Jiqing glanced sideways. Zhou Yushu was washing her hands beside her, head lowered. Cheng Jiqing’s gaze swept over her raised wrist. “Oh? CEO Zhou isn’t wearing her watch anymore?”
Zhou Yushu: “…”
Zhou Yushu straightened up. If it were before, she probably would have retorted sharply, but now…
She reached out, pulled a paper towel from the wall dispenser, stood in a corner, took out a pack of cigarettes from her jacket, and lit one with her head down.
Cheng Jiqing moved aside, finished wiping her hands, and prepared to walk out.
“Cheng Jiqing.”
Cheng Jiqing paused, hearing Zhou Yushu’s calm voice.
“Let’s coexist peacefully from now on.”
She looked back in surprise. This was like a neighbor who constantly threw stones into your yard to annoy you suddenly throwing you a piece of candy one day.
Poisoned.
Wouldn’t you suspect this person had put laxatives in it?
Cheng Jiqing: “Are you all drinking so happily today?”
One after another.
Zhou Yushu: “?”
“It’s nothing…” Cheng Jiqing nodded. “Okay.”
Well water does not interfere with river water1.
Cheng Jiqing left.
Zhou Yushu stood by the wall, exhaling a puff of light blue smoke.
In the time Bai Xin had been gone earlier, she had chatted with Tang Jia for a while.
“I warned you before, Bai Xin is different towards Cheng Jiqing. Now that you’ve suffered a loss, do you regret it?” Tang Jia asked her.
She said she couldn’t say she regretted it.
She and Bai Xin had known each other for too long, from youth to adulthood, from adolescence to their thirties. Having feelings wasn’t shameful.
Tang Jia asked her: “Then after Bai Xin got together with Cheng Jiqing, did you feel unable to eat or sleep2?”
She shook her head.
She ate well, slept fine.
Tang Jia asked her: “When Bai Xin became cold to you because of Cheng Jiqing, did your heart feel like it was being twisted by a knife, were you in so much pain you wished you were dead?”
She shook her head.
But the discomfort and disappointment were very clear.
Tang Jia asked her again: “So, how do you feel working with Bai Xin now?”
“As usual, smooth coordination, seamless cooperation.”
Clap! Tang Jia clapped her hands together. “That settles it.”
With Bai Xin absent, Tang Jia lit a cigarette. “Congratulations, you don’t even deserve the word ‘heartbroken’.”
“…”
It was a topic they had discussed long ago.
Lately, she had also been thinking that some things felt very meaningless, that what she was doing was very meaningless. The watch incident was a momentary lapse in judgment.
But if you really said it was because of AO feelings, thinking about it carefully, it wasn’t that deep.
“Friends who have been together for a long time also develop a sense of dependence.” Tang Jia always saw other people’s affairs with particular clarity. “Perhaps that’s how you feel about Bai Xin.”
Dependence can create the illusion of love.
“If you don’t want to break off so many years of friendship, take my advice: make peace sooner rather than later. Cheng Jiqing is really a good person.”
Zhou Yushu came back to her senses, watching Cheng Jiqing’s retreating figure until she finished her cigarette.
She stubbed it out in the ashtray.
Let’s hope so.
If Bai Xin really chose Cheng Jiqing.
Before Cheng Jiqing left, she passed by Cheng Jing’s private room. The door was closed, but she knew the person inside probably hadn’t left yet.
Cheng Jing, like her, needed time to calm down.
She leaned back in her car for a while.
After some thought, she sent Bai Xin a WeChat message: 【Drink less. Let me know when you come out.】
She drove the car to a more secluded spot.
At the same time, in the Xiao Nanzhou private room.
Warm air filled the entire room. The red wine bottle on the table was already empty. Cheng Jing had been drinking quickly, not even giving herself a chance to breathe.
It was as if she wanted to get herself drunk all at once.
Her phone buzzed on the table; she didn’t know how many calls it had been.
She didn’t answer.
Not two minutes later, the waiter brought another bottle.
Cheng Jing continued to drink cup after cup, but strangely, she was still perfectly sober.
In her mind, she could clearly remember that autumn day, it was raining heavily outside, and she was forced by Cheng Lan to kneel in the garden corridor.
Cheng Lan wasn’t a cruel person to anyone, she just didn’t like her.
The slightest mistake, and she would be extremely strict.
Fu Rongjun told her to endure, to remember the bitterness of today, and to work harder, to be more ambitious.
No one cared that the one kneeling on the cold autumn ground was just a child a little over ten years old.
Until those small hands reached out to hold hers, warmly grasping her frozen fingers, and said in a soft, childish voice, “Sister, don’t be afraid, I’ll stay with you.”
Later, Cheng Lan couldn’t bear to let her little daughter freeze, and by extension, softened and let her get up too.
For many years after that.
Cheng Jiqing had saved her from the brink of utter despair3 countless times.
In this family, everyone had their own schemes, their own greed, their own unspeakable secrets.
Only Cheng Jiqing, no matter what she encountered, always remained sunny and positive.
She and Cheng Jiqing were not related by blood; she had always known. Fu Rongjun had told her repeatedly since she was old enough to remember.
Thus, she didn’t know when it started, but her feelings had changed, and she had developed an absolute dependence on Cheng Jiqing’s existence.
But she had never thought of crossing the line.
However, as things happened one after another… everything began to change.
Until that afternoon, when she drank and said the most outrageous words of her life.
After that, there was no more peace between her and Cheng Jiqing.
She tried many ways to alleviate it, but it was useless. Because she couldn’t tell Cheng Jiqing that they weren’t blood-related…
The phone vibrated again.
Buzzing, like it had gone mad.
Color finally returned to Cheng Jing’s face. She stared at the name on the screen, gripping her wine glass tightly.
All of this started with Fu Rongjun.
“Cheng Jing, what did Cheng Jiqing say? Does she know something?”
“She knows everything. So, from now on, don’t put on the airs of an elder in front of her.”
“What’s with your attitude?” Fu Rongjun probably wasn’t in the mood either. “What else did she say? Did you manage to placate her?”
“Why should I placate her? So what if she knows we’re not blood-related? It’s just for your face!”
“Cheng Jing, talk to Mom properly. Of course, you have to placate her. If she finds out, it’s not just my face that will be lost, it will also endanger everything you have now. Why don’t you understand? Cheng Jiqing, or the shareholders of Cheng Corporation, if they find out you’re not her biological child, what if a second will is revealed? Then Cheng Corporation won’t be in your hands anymore.”
“So what if there is? So what if all of this is given to Chengcheng?!” Cheng Jing thought of what Cheng Jiqing had said earlier.
They were the ones who ruined Cheng Jiqing.
What was wrong with that statement?
“Then what was I doing it all for?! Do you know how much effort I put in to make you inherit?! Cheng Lan wanted to give the company to her biological daughter, in her dreams!”
Cheng Jing’s eyes reddened, her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
She wasn’t drunk; she keenly sensed something amiss in those words.
The other end went quiet.
Cheng Jing held her breath. She asked, word by word, “Wasn’t the will that gave me the company written by Cheng Lan? What do you mean by this?”
“She wrote it, but later I found out there were two. Thinking about it now, that woman was probably trying to placate me at the time. She was afraid Cheng Jiqing was too young, afraid of what I might do. Once Cheng Jiqing was older, she’d have someone bring out the second one.” Fu Rongjun laughed coldly. “Unfortunately, Cheng Jiqing was not up to the task…”
Cheng Jing closed her eyes. It wasn’t that Cheng Jiqing wasn’t up to the task; it was that they, one by one, had tormented Cheng Jiqing until she lost her spirit.
She had had enough.
Cheng Jing opened her eyes. “So, what are you planning to do now?”
“Of course, find someone to keep an eye on…”
Bang—
Cheng Jing threw the wine glass in her hand against the wall, shattering it to pieces.
“Isn’t it enough?! I’m asking you, back then, when you held me back, refusing to let me go in and save her, were you already thinking it would be best if Chengcheng never came out again?”
The last sentence was also what Cheng Jiqing had asked her.
No matter what Fu Rongjun was like, she had never thought her own mother would do such a thing. But with one incident after another, Fu Rongjun’s obsession with Cheng Corporation, she actually began to waver.
The tone on the other end turned stern. “What nonsense are you spouting4?! If I hadn’t stopped you, would I have let my daughter die in there too?! Don’t think you owe her. If it weren’t for you, could the Cheng family have continued? Is Cheng Jiqing capable of that? Could she be living so comfortably now?”
“You think she’s comfortable now? You think I’m comfortable now?”
Cheng Jing’s hand gripped the tabletop tightly. “You forced me to take over the company, threatened to send her abroad, then indulged her, letting her reputation be ruined! And the matter of colluding with Old Madam Qin… Enough, I’ve really had enough. Whoever it belongs to, it belongs to.”
“Don’t you just want the company? Don’t you just want money? I’ll give it all back to you.”
By the last sentence, Cheng Jing was exhausted.
The call ended.
She covered her face with her hands, her mind replaying over and over—Because we are family, that’s why I feel pain when I learn of betrayal.
I didn’t turn bad overnight; I was tormented by you all, bit by bit, until I broke.
She thought that by going along with Fu Rongjun all these years, she was protecting Cheng Jiqing.
Little did she know, she was pushing Cheng Jiqing into pain again and again.
She never knew Cheng Jiqing was in such pain.
Cheng Jing’s fingers dug into her hair, applying slight pressure, her knuckles turning white. Her shoulders trembled slightly, like a collapsing mountain peak.
She knew Cheng Jiqing wouldn’t come back. She no longer had a younger sister.
No one would ever tell her again, “Don’t be afraid.”
And no one would accompany her anymore.
It was past nine, not too late.
Cheng Jiqing glanced at her silent phone. She had originally planned to wait outside for Bai Xin to finish eating and come out, but after sending the message…
The reply came: 【No need, you go back.】
Her mood was gloomy.
She troubled Tang Jia to send the person off and drove back herself.
At nine, she asked when Bai Xin would be back, but there was no reply.
She had no mood to read, so she put on a movie on her tablet, just listening, not watching attentively.
She even felt somewhat irritable.
The original owner’s troubling matters kept surfacing in her mind today. Coupled with the tense atmosphere with Bai Xin in the evening, she felt agitated all over.
After a short while, she heard the sound of the front door opening.
“Did you drink too much?”
Cheng Jiqing stood at her bedroom doorway, a long distance away.
The house was quiet and desolate. The lilies on the table were bought just yesterday, emitting a faint fragrance.
Bai Xin took off her down jacket. As she got closer, a faint smell of alcohol was added to the light fragrance.
Bai Xin walked up to Cheng Jiqing, looking up slightly. “I drank too much.”
She didn’t look very drunk, but Cheng Jiqing still said, “I bought some sobering tea on the way back. I’ll go make it.”
Bai Xin grabbed her. “Cheng Jiqing, if you find me annoying, you can tell me. You don’t have to endure it and keep it bottled up.”
Cheng Jiqing looked at her in surprise. “What are you talking about?”
“Am I not?”
Cheng Jiqing took a deep breath. Her mood was also bad, and she wanted to suppress her tone before speaking.
But in that brief moment of breathing, Bai Xin misunderstood Cheng Jiqing’s meaning and turned to leave.
“Hey!” Cheng Jiqing grabbed her hand. “Why are you leaving before we’ve finished talking?”
Bai Xin struggled free. “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“What happened in the private room wasn’t because of that.”
Cheng Jiqing suppressed her anger; her day hadn’t been smooth either. “I met Fu Rongjun and Cheng Jing. You know how many twists and turns are involved. I was indeed in a bad mood.”
Cheng Jiqing was explaining, she clearly explained.
Clearly, she also felt sorry for Cheng Jiqing’s bad mood.
But Bai Xin looked at that suppressed anger, and somehow, she acted up again. “Mm.”
Did Cheng Jiqing think she only cared about that?
She wasn’t in the mood to say.
She tried to leave again.
Cheng Jiqing held onto her last bit of patience. “Bai Xin.”
She pulled the person back, but the person was too stubborn. She used a little force, but who knew that Bai Xin, being drunk, was actually stronger than usual.
Pulling away, her hand swung out and hit Cheng Jiqing on the chin.
The pain, combined with the agitation in her heart, caused the anger Cheng Jiqing had suppressed all night to flare up. She threw the person onto the bed.
She pinned Bai Xin’s hands above her head. “What exactly are you trying to pick a fight with me about?”
Both of them landed on the bed.
The bed shook violently.
Bai Xin’s face was cold, but her eyes were alluring. “Did I pick a fight? Look who’s picking a fight now?”
She was reminding Cheng Jiqing that Cheng Jiqing was the one restraining her.
Cheng Jiqing chuckled. “Are you trying to argue with me today?”
Things had been good for a few days, and now she was unhappy.
“Your mouth is itching too, and your gentle temperament is about to change?” These past few days, the soft whispers had almost made her forget how quickly Bai-jie’s expression could change.
Cheng Jiqing also felt aggrieved. After talking with Cheng Jing, she felt uncomfortable. She thought that at least she could see Bai Xin when she got back and be comforted a little. Who knew that the encounter in the private room would turn out like this.
A certain word pricked Bai Xin. Bai Xin’s gaze darkened, but she also smiled. “I forgot, Little CEO Cheng likes gentle ones. Qin Yufu is gentle, why don’t you go find her?”
Cheng Jiqing’s brow furrowed. “Why don’t you listen to what you’re saying?”
Bai Xin knew too, but at that point, who could think straight?
Didn’t Cheng Jiqing like gentle ones? She wasn’t, she never was.
These days, she wasn’t truly gentle all the time either. Sometimes it was because she wanted to go along with Cheng Jiqing, but she wasn’t that kind of person by nature.
But Cheng Jiqing liked it, Cheng Jiqing needed it.
She was extremely annoyed. Suddenly, she lifted her leg and kicked at Cheng Jiqing’s leg.
Cheng Jiqing was unprepared and actually got kicked. It wasn’t heavy, but this action completely infuriated her.
“Fine, I see you’re not looking for trouble, you’re just looking to get…”
That word, unsuitable for Cheng Jiqing to say, brushed past Bai Xin’s eardrum like a breeze. Her heart skipped a beat.
She knew Cheng Jiqing was truly angry.
Otherwise, when had Cheng Jiqing ever been forced to say such a thing?
Cheng Jiqing’s long, narrow eyes narrowed. She had been holding both of Bai Xin’s hands, but switched to one. Her hand went past the leather skirt, forgetting about the stockings.
Her fingertips paused.
Her next move stopped. Bai Xin, like a fearless warrior, said, “Want me to teach you? How to take them off.”
Cheng Jiqing’s tongue pressed against her lip, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. A gentle voice spilled out, “This isn’t the only way.”
Riiip—
The room was instantly filled with the piercing sound of fabric tearing.
The author has something to say:
Chengcheng: Even a cornered rabbit will bite.
Footnotes
- 井水不犯河水 | jǐngshuǐ bù fàn héshuǐ | Lit: Well water does not encroach on river water. Meaning: Each minds their own business; let’s not interfere with each other. It implies a desire for peaceful coexistence by staying out of each other’s affairs.
- 食不下咽，睡不能寐 | shí bù xià yàn, shuì bù néng mèi | Lit: food cannot be swallowed, sleep cannot be achieved. Meaning: to be so worried or upset that one cannot eat or sleep properly.
- 濒临心死 | bīnlín xīn sǐ | Lit: on the verge of one’s heart dying. Meaning: to be on the brink of complete emotional collapse or despair.
- 胡说八道 | húshuō bādào | Lit: to speak wildly eight ways. Meaning: to talk nonsense, to blather, to make things up.
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