Volume Ten: Those Few Years After She and I Broke Up
Little Lover
“Someone sent you back?”
Wen Nuan looked at Zhai Yi, who was still drinking coffee in the lobby. Hearing her words, she froze for a moment: “What?”
“Before you left, you had about 50 on your whole body. You must have eaten lunch outside. Even calculating by the lowest standard, given your appetite, a bowl of malatang1 would cost at least 20. That leaves you with around 30. You likely ate dinner outside as well, and the remaining money isn’t enough for a taxi back. The special bus line has stopped at this hour, and you didn’t call me to borrow money. Most importantly, your phone is out of battery and turned off. Under these circumstances, you returned safe and sound with only a bit of rain on you.”
Zhai Yi put down her cup, looking at Wen Nuan with a disappointed “you went out to mess around again” expression.
“So, someone sent you back, right?”
Wen Nuan: “…”
Absolutely brilliant reasoning.
System: 【…】
Truly fucking awesome!
Zhai Yi carefully observed Wen Nuan’s expression: “Moreover, your smile is a bit lewd.”
She spoke with little regard now because they were no longer on a live broadcast; it would be edited for later airing, and the staff behind the scenes would cut out inappropriate remarks.
Like this sentence Zhai Yi just said.
If this were on a certain website, it might even get locked.
Wen Nuan rubbed her face, “Is there?”
“I wasn’t sure at first,” Zhai Yi tapped her fingertip in the air, “but this action of yours proves your guilty conscience and also signifies that everything I said is true.”
“You really did go out to mess around.”
Wen Nuan touched the back of her head, saying awkwardly, “Didn’t mess around. Just reminiscing about old times with an old friend I haven’t seen in a long time.”
“Reminiscing requires borrowing money?”
“Does treating an old friend to a meal not cost money?” Wen Nuan told a lie with her eyes wide open.
“Ranging from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand?” Zhai Yi narrowed her eyes.
Wen Nuan was defensive: “Wanted to treat her to something good.”
Zhai Yi raised a brow: “Something good? Your ex-girlfriend?”
Wen Nuan: “?!”
System: 【!?】
Both of them sighed a “what the fuck” in their hearts simultaneously!
Seeing Wen Nuan open her mouth to explain, Zhai Yi said indifferently, “I graduated with full marks in psychology.”
Wen Nuan shut her mouth.
“Actually, it was because you made it too obvious, so I could see it clearly.” Zhai Yi stood up, walked to Wen Nuan’s side, patted her shoulder, and sighed, “But the real you, I have never seen clearly.”
She could see through many matters and people, but Wen Nuan was very special; she would only show what she wanted people to see.
She was a difficult riddle, and the method to solve it lay within her own palm.
Wen Nuan looked at Zhai Yi’s retreating back and said thoughtfully, “A person like her, whether as a friend or an enemy, will be the most formidable.”
The System sighed: 【A person like her is very easily targeted by the Main System.】
“??”
The System explained: 【Taskers all have a time for retirement, so the Main System likes to select new Taskers from the Three Thousand Worlds2 to take over. Its selection conditions aren’t fixed. Whether bad people, good people, smart ones, or stupid ones, they will all have some special points discovered by the Main System. Then the Main System will lobby these people to become Taskers.】
Wen Nuan pointed at herself, asking curiously, “What is my special point?”
The System said decisively: 【Doesn’t do human deeds3, by any means necessary, and shameless, I guess.】
Wen Nuan: “…”
Wen Nuan’s expression turned too gloomy, so the System sensed something was wrong and decisively went offline.
The second round of selection was approaching.
Wen Nuan originally had a lazy nature but was forcibly required by Cong Hui and the others to maintain a nine-to-five practice intensity.
Because of the uniqueness and inclusiveness of Wen Nuan’s voice, Cong Hui wrote three songs suitable for her within three days, spanning a wide range.
“Come, let’s try.” Cong Hui’s eyes shone with light, like a wild wolf seeing a young beast.
Wen Nuan’s pleading gaze fell on An Siya, but An Siya had already set up the drums, looking eager to give it a try.
Two “straight women” acting in collusion like wolves and bei4; you two deserve to quarrel all the time.
Wen Nuan looked at Zhai Yi again. Zhai Yi hooked the corner of her mouth, picked up the bass, and persuaded, “Sing. These three songs by Cong Hui are very suitable. Tomorrow is the assessment day.”
Although Wen Nuan was a person with no heart and no lungs5, she didn’t want to destroy other people’s dreams. Now that the four of them had formed a team, it wouldn’t be good if she alone dragged on their hind legs6.
She walked to the microphone, helplessly held the mic, and said seriously: “Only singing these three, okay!”
Cong Hui nodded like pounding garlic7: “Okay, okay, we’ll listen to you.”
She glanced at the other two, “Come, prepare.”
Fingertips plucked the strings; the deep sound of the bass was soul-stirring, the drumbeats surged, and every accent was just right.
The deep, magnetic voice brought the song to its highest point, then slowly fell, leaving a trace in everyone’s heart.
The four didn’t practice too late, mainly to let Wen Nuan relax her throat properly.
Wen Nuan returned to the dormitory, looked at the phone on the table, and saw no messages.
It had been three days since she and Yi Jing last met, and they had cut off contact for three days.
If not for seeing that the pinned contact was Yi Jing, Wen Nuan would have thought her meeting with the female lead three days ago was a hallucination from practicing too tirelessly these past few days.
Her eyes suddenly rolled; she picked up her phone, opened WeChat, and sent a message.
Ding-ling—
The special notification sound for WeChat rang out.
Yi Jing lifted her head from the documents, thinking that at this time, it must be the “Goodnight” Wen Nuan sent her.
Ever since the two separated three days ago, Wen Nuan would take the initiative to send her “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” and “Goodnight” every day. Sometimes she would even care about whether she had eaten.
Ask her if she was still working overtime?
Did she need her to pick her up from work?
Yi Jing did not reply to any of her messages. She just felt it was laughable and ironic. The thing she had wanted so badly back then, she could now obtain by spitting on her hands8 just by spending a little bit of money.
Yi Jing increasingly felt how base and pitiful her past self was.
She picked up her phone and unlocked it; Wen Nuan’s WeChat message instantly opened before her eyes.
Yi Jing’s brows furrowed fiercely as she looked at the sent message.
No Heart No Lungs: [See you at Junge Grand Hotel9 Room 1301 at 10 PM tonight. The room card is at the front desk. #Shy#]
The next second, that side retracted the message.
A few seconds passed.
No Heart No Lungs: [Xiao Jing, Goodnight #KissKiss#]
Yi Jing’s eyes narrowed, gripping the phone tightly.
Trying to cover it up only makes it more conspicuous; a thief has a guilty conscience.
Junge Grand Hotel, 1301.
Yi Jing looked at the time: 9:15 PM.
She knew Junge Hotel; it was a property of the Wen family.
Changling Villa District was only a half-hour taxi ride from Junge Hotel.
It was already this late, and she still dared to ask someone to go to a hotel!?
And tomorrow was the second round of assessment; did she not take it seriously at all?
Yi Jing picked up her phone and left the office.
Secretary Li saw Yi Jing storming out angrily, froze for a moment, and hurriedly asked: “Boss, are you getting off work?”
“It’s nothing,” Yi Jing walked straight forward, then suddenly thought of something, took two steps back, and looked at Secretary Li. “Give me the car keys.”
Secretary Li hurriedly handed the car keys to Yi Jing. “Boss, where do you want to go? Should I drive you?”
“No need. You get off work when you’re done; no need to wait for me.”
Yi Jing finished speaking and left quickly.
Secretary Li looked at Yi Jing’s hurried departure with confusion. She walked into the President’s office and tidied up the documents on the table.
She suddenly discovered that the water cup her boss treasured immensely was missing.
That cup printed with “Happy Birthday” looked particularly inferior in quality. At first, Secretary Li thought it wasn’t the boss’s; after all, with the boss’s taste and temperament, that cheap cup truly didn’t match her use.
But later, Feili hired a new batch of cleaning staff. A cleaner sweeping the ninth floor accidentally put that cup away. When the boss couldn’t find it, she instantly flew into a terrible rage.
That was the first time Secretary Li saw the boss angry. All along, the boss had been reticent, introverted, and low-key in front of them. They had never seen the boss angry. Even when an intern in the company accidentally lost a client worth ten million, the boss calmly handled the mess and didn’t angrily rebuke that intern.
But that time, it was the first time Secretary Li saw her boss display anger and panic, merely because of a cheap and inferior old cup that already had a chipped corner.
Yi Jing drove quickly to Junge Hotel. She walked to the front desk and reported the room number Wen Nuan had mistakenly sent her.
The receptionist kindly handed the room card to Yi Jing.
Yi Jing took the room card and took the elevator to the 13th floor. She quickly found Suite 1301.
Standing before the door, Yi Jing thought a lot.
Has Wen Nuan already gone to bed with that man?!
This was the worst scene she could imagine. The more she thought, the more fire rose three zhang high10; she hated that she couldn’t charge straight in and slaughter that man.
Di—
The room card effortlessly opened the door to Suite 1301.
Yi Jing took a deep breath and pushed the door open to enter.
She originally thought the scene greeting her eyes would be one that angered her to the extreme, but instead, she saw a smiling Wen Nuan. She was dressed neatly, holding a glass of red wine standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, the expression on her face looking as if she knew very well she would come.
“You…?” Although the suite was large, the decor allowed one to see everything at a glance.
Yi Jing quickly swept her eyes across the room; she didn’t see anyone else.
Her palm was hurt by the corner of the room card pressing into it, which also allowed Yi Jing to recover her reason.
She instantly understood she had been played by Wen Nuan.
No wonder the front desk handed the room card to her so easily, not even letting her leave a name or phone number; it proved that the person the front desk was waiting for was her.
“You did it on purpose?” Yi Jing said coldly.
Wen Nuan poured a glass of red wine, walked over, and handed it to Yi Jing. “En, on purpose. Didn’t expect you to take the bait so easily.”
A trace of cunning flashed in the bottom of her eyes, smiling triumphantly. “Xiao Jing, you came so fast. Were you afraid I was going to bed with other men?”
Yi Jing took the wine glass, drank it in one gulp, and said while panting heavily: “How could I not be? Since I’ve spent money on you, I don’t want my things to be stained by others even a tiny bit.”
“You should have some self-awareness.” She grabbed Wen Nuan’s wrist, pinning her against the wall, pressing closer. “Don’t attempt to provoke me.”
Wen Nuan let her control her, pouting her lips, looking aggrieved: “Who asked you to ignore this person? This person talks to you every day, bids you good day, and you? You ignore this person completely. Annoying.”
Yi Jing was agitated by her coquettish tone, her brows furrowing: “Speak properly.”
Wen Nuan cleared her throat: “I just wanted to see you. You wouldn’t reply to my messages, so I could only use this poor strategy to force you to come out and meet me.”
Hearing her voice was a bit hoarse, Yi Jing asked: “What happened to your voice?”
“From singing.” Wen Nuan put on a pitiful little expression. “I’m treated like a slave every day, forced to sing one song after another. In the end, I sang until my throat was about to go hoarse. Yet when I bid you goodnight, you still ignored this person.”
Yi Jing felt a trace of guilt rise in her heart from her accusation. She released Wen Nuan, walked into the room, and poured a cup of hot tea. “Drinking alcohol when your throat is bad? Serves you right that you’re suffering.”
She placed the teacup on the corner of the table. “Now you’ve seen me too. If you dare to send random text messages casually in the future, I’ll increase your debt by a hundred thousand.”
Wen Nuan felt heart pain for one second. She sat over: “Then what do I do if I want to see you in the future?”
Yi Jing poured herself a glass of red wine, sipping slightly: “Did I block you? Did I tie your feet?”
She turned her head to look. “What? You still need others to be active?”
Wen Nuan laughed involuntarily: “True hou.”
“Then if I go to your company to find you, will you let the security guards stop me?”
“Hard to say.”
“If the security guards stop me, I’ll shout loudly that I am the little lover kept by your President. Is that okay?” Wen Nuan raised her eyes, her gaze wicked.
Yi Jing drank another mouthful of red wine, her throat rolling: “You can try?”
A hand, fair as jade, landed on her leg. Yi Jing’s gaze dropped, her throat stagnating.
Wen Nuan took all of Yi Jing’s expressions into the bottom of her eyes. Her fingertips slid gently, landing on the ribbon at her chest, entangling and knotting.
“If I shout, what will your fiancé do?” Wen Nuan chuckled lightly, her charming eyes like silk threads. “Haven’t even married yet, and this little lover has already come knocking on the door. If this spreads out, how will you let Wen Xiuning conduct himself as a person?”
Yi Jing placed the wine glass on the table, looking at the “beauty snake” before her emitting enchanting air, her expression remaining normal.
Her every movement was soul-capturing; no wonder so many people couldn’t resist and willingly sank into depravity.
“I’ll let you shout. Do you dare?”
Yi Jing rubbed her cheek, which was like a peeled egg.
The action was gentle, yet the eyes were icy cold. Her tone was light, carrying skepticism: “Do you dare?”
Wen Nuan smiled but did not speak.
Yi Jing’s face was sinister.
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