Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Guan Yizhou is here! The downstairs bathroom was not much smaller than the one upstairs. Except for the lack of a bathtub, a cold and rigid palette of black, white, and gray covered almost the entire room. Chi Mo locked the door and originally wanted to find something to prop against it to block it. When she turned her head, a huge floor-to-ceiling mirror reflected her current disheveled state. Messy hair, barely clothed. If she pulled her collar back just a little bit, she could see the dots and marks on her neck, collarbone, chest, and even the inner sides of her arms and wrists... These traces made her whole body drain of strength. It was pointless. Propping anything against the door was completely meaningless. Chi Mo felt an overwhelming sense of regret. She used to not know how to drink alcohol. It wasn't until the year she graduated from college that she tried it for the first time—half a glass of beer could make her dizzy, making her the butt of Guan Yizhou's jokes. Later... for reasons unknown, her alcohol tolerance grew better and better. Beer, red wine, liquor, and even high-proof spirits—Chi Mo turned none of them down. Guan Yizhou never dared to laugh at her again and laid down a rule: from then on, she could only drink at home. The first time Chi Mo went to a bar to drink was after she broke up with him. Illuminated by the colorful, flashing lights, with the sound of music masking all her emotions, she gripped her glass and experienced a sudden revelation. Ah, so there was actually a reason why he used to love going to bars to drink. Happiness—it was truly happiness. Whether crying or laughing, everything vanished along with the alcohol. Hot steam rising like white fog streamed down Chi Mo's hair, making a rushing sound for quite a while. It wasn't until she reached out to turn off the faucet that she suddenly heard voices outside. "Oh my, Xiaoyu might not be awake yet. Xiaozhou, go ahead and sit for a moment while Aunty goes to prepare something for you to eat." "It's fine, Aunty, you don't need to worry about me. I drank a bit too much last night, I'll go lie down on the sofa for a bit." "You kids, how old are you all and you still drink like this. Alright, then Aunty will go brew some sobering soup for you... Go on and lie down." Chi Mo hadn't even had time to wipe the water off her body. Hit by a draft of cold air slipping through the crack of the door, her whole body began to tremble. It was Guan Yizhou!! How—how could he possibly be here?! Song Huaiyu walked downstairs drying his hair. Hearing sounds coming from the kitchen, he said casually, "Aunty Huang, there's a dress in the upstairs bathroom. Please help me take it out for dry cleaning today." Aunty Huang poked her head out from the kitchen. "Xiaoyu, you're awake? Perfect, Xiaozhou is here; as soon as I arrived just now, I saw him ringing the doorbell at the entrance. Oh? Right, what dress?" Song Huaiyu's footsteps on the stairs paused, a dark look flashing noticeably across his eyes. Before he could speak, Guan Yizhou's voice drifted in from the living room. "Yo, His Lordship is finally awake." Tossing a bath towel over his body, Song Huaiyu glanced at the tightly closed door as he passed the downstairs bathroom, then strode into the living room. "What brings you here? Something up this early?" Guan Yizhou clearly hadn't sobered up yet. Squinting as he leaned sideways against the sofa, he looked Song Huaiyu up and down and frowned, "What... is going on with you?" As he spoke, he reached out and pointed at the hickey on Song Huaiyu's neck. Though very faint, because Song Huaiyu's skin was exceptionally fair, it stood out particularly clearly under the morning sun. "What do you mean, what's going on?" Song Huaiyu replied casually as he usually did, avoiding the answer. "Tch~" Guan Yizhou rolled his eyes. "I thought you hadn't dated any girlfriends these past few years because you'd finally settled down. What? What kind of woman makes you wash her dress for her?" "......" Song Huaiyu gave him a sideways glance. "What on earth did you come here for?" "To sleep." Guan Yizhou made no attempt to hide it. "The house is too empty, I can't sleep alone." "...Then why'd you run over to my place?" "I already told you, to sleep. Xu Yichen and Yuan Siyu went to work, and you don't have a job to go to—if I don't come look for you, who am I supposed to look for?" Without a word, Song Huaiyu suddenly stood up and headed back upstairs. Puzzled, Guan Yizhou raised his head to look, then lay back down because his head felt too heavy, raising his voice to call out, "Where are you going, Song Huaiyu! Song Huaiyu!" There was still a trace of drunkenness in his tone, and every single word drifted clearly into the bathroom. Chi Mo leaned against the wall, trembling all over, mentally cursing herself for being useless. Clearly, they had already broken up; clearly, there was no longer any relationship between them—why was it that right now, she didn't even dare to make the slightest sound... Without any warning, her eyes turned red. Lowering her head, two teardrops hit the floor... Before she could even react, the bathroom door was quickly pulled open and shut again with a snap. Click. The lock clicked into place. Chi Mo stared wide-eyed in shock. And the person who had walked in was Song Huaiyu. He was holding a set of his own clothes. The look of slight worry he wore when he first entered instantly vanished the moment he saw Chi Mo's tears. The lingering mist in the bathroom, mixed with the dim yellow light overhead, made the dissatisfaction in those eyes look all too obvious. Song Huaiyu tilted his head and scanned Chi Mo from head to toe. Chi Mo furrowed her brows, not daring to speak. She raised a finger and pointed toward the door outside, as if asking him: What do we do? Song Huaiyu let out a cold sneer, dumped the pile of clothes onto the vanity, and stepped closer with every stride. Chi Mo had long since run out of room to back up, so she could only shake her head at him frantically. Who would have thought that as soon as Song Huaiyu walked over, he would wrap an arm tightly around her waist? "Chi Mo, don't you want to go out and let him take a look?" He whispered right against her ear. "Are you out of your mind?" Chi Mo's voice was even quieter. In order to make sure he could hear her clearly, she had no choice but to stand on tiptoe and lean close to Song Huaiyu's ear to say, "Quickly think of a way to get him out of here!" Song Huaiyu gave a soft scoff, "I refuse." "I'm begging you, Song Huaiyu, I'm begging you..." "How are you begging?" Chi Mo didn't know. Because she had never begged Song Huaiyu for anything before. She hadn't even spoken more than a handful of words to him in her entire life—how was she supposed to know how to beg this ancestor of a man?! "....How do you want to beg?" Song Huaiyu raised an eyebrow, turned his head to look at her, and said, "Kiss me." What? It's that simple? Chi Mo was deeply suspicious. "Just a kiss?" "I have no objections if you want to kiss a few more times." "Fine, I'll kiss you." Wasn't it just a kiss? They had already done much more than that, so what was she afraid of? Without a moment's hesitation, Chi Mo leaned right over and planted a kiss on Song Huaiyu's cheek. She really had come a long way. Ten years, and she had actually kissed Song Huaiyu. If someone had traveled back in time to tell her this would happen, she never would have believed it in a million years. However, Song Huaiyu was not satisfied. He turned his head, cupped Chi Mo's face with one hand while supporting her waist with the other, and pressed his lips with absolute precision straight onto hers.