Chapter 43

After eating the medicine, the two returned to the hotel. Su Yi lied down on the bed in a daze, hugging one of Chu Ying’s arm. Unconsciously she rubbed her head against it. It wasn’t long before she was in deep sleep.

Chu Ying let her hug him, using his other hand to swipe at the tablet in front of him. On it was a corporation file that was just sent over. He had just gotten through the first two rows when the tablet let out a joyful ping and a string of words appeared on the screen.

[Madam Chu: Video Call]

The person beside seemed to have felt something, rubbing her face on his arm a few times without a trace of an intention to wake up.

Chu Ying brought out the chat page and rejected it.

[Madam Chu: Where are you? Pick up the video call.]

After pondering for a long while, Chu Ying still wasn’t sure how Mother Chu managed to be in his list of WeChat friends. Before meeting Su Yi he basically only used the in-company messaging app and SMS.

[Chu Ying: At Shanghai, it’s not convenient.]

[Madam Chu: What’s inconvenient, are you in a meeting or are you driving?]

[Chu Ying: Neither.]

The other at once sent another video call request, and Chu Ying once again hung up.

Mother Chu sent a sticker over; in it the woman had her lips slightly pursed, weeping like a rain of pear flowers, just like in a certain scene in a certain TV show. And this crying woman was currently sleeping beside him.

He held for two seconds, but before he could save it the photo disappeared at once.

[The sender has retrieved the message]

Chu Ying: “?”

[Madam Chu: That was a sticker I randomly downloaded.]

Amused by his mother’s attempt to dissociate herself from it, Chu Ying sent an ‘hmm’.

[Madam Chu: When are you coming home?]

[Chu Ying: What’s the matter, you can say it now.]

[Madam Chu: In two days it’s Elder Yang’s birthday, your dad wants you to go with us to celebrate his birthday.]

[Chu Ying: I’m not free.]

[Madam Chu: We’ve always been quite close, this is his eightieth, you have to come over no matter what, isn’t it?]

[Chu Ying: I’m staying in Shanghai for a few more days before going back.]

[Madam Chu: If it’s work just let someone take care for a while, it’s just half a day what’s so hard about it?]

[Chu Ying: It’s not work.]

[Chu Ying: Your future daughter-in-law is sick.]

Mother Chu couldn’t help it anymore. She didn’t send a request for a video call this time and instead called directly. But Chu Ying hung up rather quickly too. He set everything to silent mode while at that.

Who knew why, but after he sent that message his mood improved drastically.

In a moment, as if remembering something, he got up, went to the balcony and gave his assistant a call. When he came back there was a cold draft about him. After looking through some documents while sitting there, he put the tablet casually on the bedside table and slowly got under the blankets.

His hand was quickly taken by the person beside him.

He reached out and touched her face.

Not as hot as before.

He reached out his other hand and turned off the bedside lamp.

……

At midnight, Su Yi woke of thirst. She blinked trying to orient herself, her memory a little messed up. It took her a while to piece them together.

The arm she had hugged for most of the night was really warm.

After procrastinating for a long while, she carefully sat up. By the bedside was a cup of water – she reached out for it, but before she could touch it she felt a warmth around her waist.

The guy held onto her waist, his voice low with a tiny hint of scratchiness.

“What do you want to do?”

“Did I wake you?” Su Yi’s voice was very small. “I want to drink water.”

The force of the arm around her waist didn’t diminish. Chu Ying got up and eyed the cup of water by the bed. “That water’s cold, lie here, I’ll go warm some.”

Su Yi obediently sat back on the bed.

Chu Ying was only wearing his underwear. His legs were long, muscle lines faintly visible as he walked, firmly attracting Su Yi’s gaze to the point that she couldn’t look away.

The hotel booked for them wasn’t high-class, and the room she got was a regular one too – the only thing in the room was an electric kettle that didn’t look classy enough.

After plugging it in, Chu Ying walked back, put one hand on the back of her head and the other on her forehead.

Su Yi felt the warmth of the big hand and said, “It’s more accurate with the forehead than with a hand.”

“Nonsense.”

Saying so, Chu Ying still leant down and placed his forehead against hers. It seemed to be burning a little.

Su Yi smilingly leant in to kiss him on the lips. However, she regretted it the moment she did it.

Covering her mouth, she said, “We’re done for would it infect you? I forgot.”

Chu Ying struggled to keep from laughing. “My immune system isn’t that weak.”

Once he heard the water boiling, he went over, opened the lid, peeped in, then turned around, went into the bathroom and poured the water away.

“Why pour it away?” Su Yi couldn’t help getting off and was now leaning by the bathroom door. “You’re wasting resources.”

“The hotel’s electric kettle is very dirty.” Seeing the coloured liquid that came out of the hot kettle, Chu Ying frowned deeply and decided in less than two seconds. “Drink mineral water.”

The hotel room had a few bottles of it in the fridge but the fridge was not plugged in, so the water was room temperature.

Su Yi drank more than half a cup. The remaining was finished by Chu Ying.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

After all this when she took a look at the time it was already five-thirty.

Su Yi was no longer tired. After a long while of lying down with her eyes open, she still couldn’t sleep. As such, she rolled into the guy’s embrace.

“I can’t sleep.”

Chu Ying didn’t open his eyes, simply put his hand behind her head and rubbed it a few times. “Then what do you want to do.”

Originally Su Yi didn’t have many ideas, but after the man said that she got interested. Turning around, her eyes shone as she stared straight at him.

Sensing no movements, Chu Ying opened his eyes and just so happened to meet hers.

Her thoughts were very clear even if she didn’t express them with words.

Chu Ying swallowed hard, put his hand on her nape and pushed her onto his shoulder. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Why?” Su Yi wasn’t about to give up, biting him on the shoulder once. “Am I not sexy enough?”

Seeing that he didn’t respond, she was at once angry and bemused. She continued on with a series of teasing actions, rubbing against him until most of her clothing was off. She was originally wearing only a really thin, long sleeve nightdress.

Chu Ying felt that it was quite life-threatening. He didn’t move, letting her rub against him. “Su Yi.”

“What?”

“You just keep provoking me.”

“?”

“When you’re healed, we’ll settle the score.”

**

The two thus killed their time from five-thirty to seven. In the end, Chu Ying got up and went to take a cold shower.

As if winning some unbelievable victory, Su Yi’s face was filled with joy, looking nothing like someone running a low fever. She curled up on the bed, watching a funny variety show on Chu Ying’s tablet.

Just when she was getting excited, the phone beside the pillow rang twice. As she laughed, she picked it up to take a look.

[Wu Xue: When you wake up let me know, I’m returning to Beijing first. At the airport now.]

[Goddess Su Yi: ???]

[Wu Xue: Is your fever down?]

[Goddess Su Yi: Not yet, why didn’t you tell me that you’re going back, what’s the hurry, something’s the matter?]

[Wu Xue: Something trivial, I’m flying back to Shanghai tomorrow. Chu Xi’s staying alone in the room at the moment, help me look after her, don’t let her go run around the place.]

So, An Xuan didn’t stay back in the end, she must have gone to find her boyfriend.

[Goddess Su Yi: Got it, then you go settle this; if you have any problems come find me.]

[Wu Xue: Okay. Don’t eat spicy food, and don’t stand in the wind. Remember to keep your air-con above 25 degrees. It’s best if you don’t even go out, the hotel has room service.]

Su Yi replied quite a few ‘Yeah’, ‘Okay’, ‘Got it’ before she managed to end this conversation.

Just when she closed the phone Chu Ying came out. He brought with him a cloud of water vapour; hair wet with a towel loosely fastened around the waist. He didn’t even wear a bathrobe.

Su Yi couldn’t focus on the variety show anymore. She stuttered. “Is, is this revenge?”

Chu Ying laughed lightly, used his big hand to pick up the clothes left on the sofa arm, then turned around and returned to the washroom.

When he came out again he had already finished changing. “I’m going to get breakfast, what do you want to eat.”

Su Yi raised her head. “I’ll go with you.”

“No.” Chu Ying rejected at once. “The wind’s too strong outside.”

It sounded like there was no room for discussion. Su Yi took a moment and said, “How about we get porridge? It’s just downstairs, only a few steps away.”

After Chu Ying went out, she pulled the duvet up slightly and continued watching the variety show.

She was just happily watching when Weibo recommended her something.

[#Wu Ke# late-night rendezvous with a mysterious woman in the hotel, the woman suspected to be newbie actress #Tu Jinglan#?]

Su Yi’s eyebrow raised. She immediately closed the variety show and opened the news.

“Recently, a certain media house got a photo of Wu Ke entering a hotel room with a mysterious woman. It was only at six the next morning that the woman in question came out of the room, hair a mess and a smile on her face. After close observation, our online friends discovered that the said woman resembles actress Tu Jinglan who’s in the same crew as Wu Ke! According to rumour mills, Wu Ke has been in a secret marriage all these years, is this cheating?”

Below there were quite a few gifs. The angle they were shot from was very crafty; it looked like the camera was placed on the ground. The picture quality was not the best, but it did manage to get Tu Jinglan’s face quite clearly. From the entry to the exit – it was impossible to argue otherwise.

The suggestion was a little delayed – this Weibo had been posted at midnight.

Such big news, was it that Wu Xue didn’t know or that she forgot to tell her?

She scrolled down to look at the trending comments.

[Is the glow-in-the-dark-watch pretty?]

[After selling too much of a persona there’ll be a payback, pity his fans.]

[Person above, who are you? Who wants you to come pity us? We’re really good, before Old Ke says anything we won’t believe or spread rumours!]

[Rubbish media, I want to ask you guys, only Tu Jinglan is in the pictures, where is Wu Ke?]

The comment section had clearly been corrupted by the paid commenters, blending perfectly the rants with the raves.

As she scrolled down, a trending comment caught Su Yi’s attention.

“It’s true that Wu Ke is in the same crew as Tu Jinglan recently, but how do you manage to see Tu Jinglan? Why do I think it looks more like Su Yi.”

This popular comment was hovering near in the centre of the ranking list, since the top half of the comments rank had been taken over by Wu Ke’s paid posters and the justice warriors.

Su Yi was almost angry enough to start laughing.

She and Tu Jinglan were white and black, tall and short respectively – whichever way one looked at it they didn’t look alike at all. If someone said this commenter wasn’t on Tu Jinglan’s payroll she wouldn’t believe them.

At least in the reply to this comment, there were already people helping her vent.

[Commenter, may I trouble you to turn left and see an optometrist!]

[I’m no one’s fans but I can’t stand what you say. I won’t comment on everything else about Su Yi, but her face is really something no one can say anything about. If Tu Jinglan someday managed to look at all like Su Yi, that will only be because she had underwent a plastic surgery…]

[Su Yi’s current boyfriend is really amazing, I advise the commenter to delete your comment and save your life.]

When Chu Ying came back, he saw her rolling around with laughter on the bed.

“Stop looking at it, come over and drink some porridge.”

Su Yi had almost finished looking through all the hot comments. Holding back her impulse to stir up the waters, she put down the phone and got off the bed with a smile. She leant on Chu Ying, waiting for him to ladle out some porridge.

……

And on the other side …

Immediately after Wu Xue got off the plane she took a cab to the hospital. It was only when she was in the car that she had the time to look at her phone.

A whole series of text messages and app notifications greeted her.

[Liu Xi: You’re really not coming to see me?]

[Liu Xi: [picture]]

[Liu Xi: It’s all from him, I’m hurting so badly.]

She let out a breath and swiped on the screen, then clicked ‘delete’.

The few messages disappeared from the screen very soon, and the next set of messages pushed up.

[#Wu Ke# late-night rendezvous with a mysterious woman in the hotel, the woman suspected to be new actress #Tu Jinglan#?]

[#Su Yi# liked #Wu Ke#’s scandal! Is it a mistake or another way of affirming that it’s the truth? Click to see this editor’s analysis!]

The breath Wu Xue had just released returned to her throat.

edited by larkspur!

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