TNSFC – Chapter 36

Que Yining had originally thought she would have a ‘romantic’ night with Gu Shanxue.

Although this bed was very large, she had plenty of opportunities to act on her little schemes.

For example, by ‘sleeping ungracefully’, she could roll into Gu Shanxue’s arms. Or, by ‘having a nightmare’, she could logically lean against Gu Shanxue.

There were plenty of opportunities for little maneuvers; Que Yining had already made her calculations in her heart, but this very opportunity slipped away right before her eyes.

After Gu Shanxue received a phone call, she started to get up and get dressed, looking at Que Yining with an apologetic gaze.

Gu Shanxue: “Something important came up, so I have to leave first.”

What else could Que Yining do? She couldn’t make her stay.

She lay on the bed, looking up at Gu Shanxue who was getting dressed, her expression a little unhappy.

“Is it about company matters?”

Gu Shanxue nodded. Seeing Que Yining’s little expression, she suddenly had the thought of wanting to ruffle her long hair.

But that thought was fleeting. She put on her coat, opened her bag, and started applying light makeup.

After all, she had already removed her makeup before the hot spring, and it wasn’t good to meet a client barefaced.

“Let me help you. I can do it faster.”

Que Yining propped herself up with her hands and sat up on the bed, stepping barefoot onto the floor and approaching Gu Shanxue.

Gu Shanxue frowned slightly, bent down to get Que Yining’s slippers from the bedside, and placed them in front of her.

“The floor is cold.”

Que Yining obediently put on her shoes: “Got it.”

The cosmetics Gu Shanxue carried in her bag were also very simple: a cushion foundation, eyebrow pencil, and lipstick. Que Yining took them out, asked Gu Shanxue to close her eyes, and quickly did Gu Shanxue’s makeup.

Que Yining didn’t know how to do makeup before. Later, after navigating the business world, she put in a lot of effort to learn and practice, finding the most suitable makeup styles and colors for herself to handle different occasions. When necessary, she could even change her appearance with makeup to avoid danger.

Soft fingers glided over her face and lips. Gu Shanxue couldn’t help but open her eyes, looking at the face so close to hers.

Que Yining’s skin was also very good without makeup, looking clear and dewy.

She was intently drawing her eyebrows, and her focused appearance made Gu Shanxue unconsciously clench her fingers.

After Que Yining finished helping Gu Shanxue, she walked her to the door.

“Then, are you free to have dinner together tomorrow?”

Que Yining leaned against the doorframe, her eyes full of anticipation.

Gu Shanxue nodded in agreement, carrying her bag and walking towards the elevator.

Before the elevator opened, she glanced back at the room. Que Yining was still leaning there, waving at her.

Only when the elevator doors closed did Que Yining shut her room door.

A spacious couple’s suite, enjoyed by her alone. It sounded desolate.

It wasn’t even twelve o’clock yet. Que Yining lay on the bed, feeling a bit bored, so she sent a message to Qiao Yuchu, taking a picture of the room with no one else in it but herself.

Qiao Yuchu immediately called. As soon as Que Yining answered, she received this sister’s wail.

“Sis, what’s wrong with you! Did I get you such a nice double room for you to sleep in alone? Where is she! Where’s the other person!”

Que Yining lowered the volume a bit and said, “She had something urgent to attend to.”

Qiao Yuchu, exasperated: “You should have kept her! Can’t you be a bit more seductive, a bit more alluring? Let her experience your tender embrace.”

Que Yining: “Those are tactics used by little fox spirits.”

Qiao Yuchu rolled her eyes on the other end, heartbroken over the lost opportunity, and sighed, “I know, I know, you’re the main wife, you disdain using such methods.”

Que Yining didn’t respond to her words, chuckling lightly, “Why do I feel like you’re more anxious than I am?”

Qiao Yuchu was still sighing: “It’s just that I’ve seen you suffer for so many years. If you meet someone you like again, you definitely have to seize the chance.”

Qiao Yuchu: “After all, hitting your head against a brick wall once is enough; you were already battered and bruised. At first, I also thought Fu Wenjing was pretty good, but now the more I look at him, the more I think he’s not a good person. What’s he being so pretentious for? So what if he’s handsome and rich? There are plenty of people like that.”

Qiao Yuchu complained mercilessly. She admitted she had double standards; no matter how good that person was, who asked him to hurt her sister?

Qiao Yuchu: “Pah, pah, pah, sorry, I accidentally mentioned him again.”

Que Yining: “It’s okay. Actually, I’d like to hear about the foolish things I did before, look back on my youth, and take it as a lesson. Do you remember anything I did?”

Que Yining asked tentatively. This was the main purpose of her message this time. Even if Qiao Yuchu hadn’t mentioned Fu Wenjing, Que Yining would have brought him up herself.

She was still pondering what Qiao Yuchu had told her two hours ago. Who knocked Fu Wenjing unconscious that time, and why was the drunk original owner able to find Fu Wenjing?

Small mysteries were intertwined. Que Yining wanted to know the answers and needed more details, but unfortunately, the fragmented memories of Fu Wenjing in her mind were all about love and hate, with no crucial clues.

Qiao Yuchu was straightforward and outspoken, roasting Que Yining without mercy: “Haven’t you done enough foolish things? You’ve forgotten them yourself?”

Before Que Yining could explain, Qiao Yuchu found an excuse for her and continued to roast, “I get it. You don’t think what you did was foolish, right?”

Que Yining hummed noncommittally, her voice soft: “When pursuing someone, one probably doesn’t think they’re doing something foolish.”

Qiao Yuchu: “But wanting to get pregnant with his child to threaten him into marrying you was truly foolish to the extreme. You couldn’t even sleep with him! I don’t know who instigated you. That time, no matter how I tried to persuade you, you wouldn’t listen and even argued with me. You made me so mad.”

Que Yining: “When did this happen?”

Que Yining pressed her temples, trying to find memories about this matter—whether it was the original owner’s argument with Qiao Yuchu, her conversation with Fu Wenjing, or how the original owner suddenly came up with this idea. Any little bit would have been good, but unfortunately, she found nothing.

“A year ago? Half a year ago? I don’t remember clearly either. Anyway, something like that happened. But how come you have no impression of it at all?”

Qiao Yuchu muttered, finding it a bit strange.

Que Yining calmly replied: “Perhaps such thoughts surfaced too many times.”

Qiao Yuchu: “Sigh, anyway, it’s all in the past. It didn’t work out that time. You were thrown out of the room with a blanket, and you called me to bring you clothes. Luckily, Fu Wenjing didn’t spread this matter, so others probably don’t know.”

Que Yining’s heart suddenly twinged with pain. She pressed her chest, her fingers clutching the pillow beside her.

Fu Wenjing’s face flashed through her mind: a strange text message, shattered glass on the floor, blood dripping on the ground, the thrown-out blanket, and the tightly closed door.

Cold sweat broke out all over Que Yining’s body. Her face was deathly pale, and her lips had lost their color. The continuous pain in her heart made Que Yining feel as if she might faint at any moment, but she still wanted to clearly perceive the images flashing in her mind.

Those images gradually blurred. Que Yining lay on the bed, like a dehydrated fish on the verge of death.

Qiao Yuchu heard the other end of the phone suddenly go silent. She called out a few times, and when she heard no response, her voice grew louder and louder.

“Eldest Miss Que, what’s wrong? Are you still there? Hello? Queque? Ningning?”

After Que Yining recovered, she responded.

Qiao Yuchu: “Why did you suddenly stop talking just now? You scared me.”

Que Yining: “I went to the bathroom to wash my hands.”

Qiao Yuchu: “Oh, I thought you were moved by the scene and wiping away tears.”

Que Yining managed to sit up in bed, took her phone to the living room, and said as she walked, “Amazing, our Xiao Qiao even knows idioms now.”

Qiao Yuchu: “Of course! My little girl is in her third year of high school, so I’ve been reading along with her… Never mind, why bring her up.”

Que Yining was still recalling what she had just seen. With a thoughtful expression, she took out a pen and paper from the drawer, jotting down what she had just seen while chatting with Qiao Yuchu.

Que Yining: “So what are you planning to do? Send her back again?”

Qiao Yuchu shook her head on the other end of the phone: “Send her back to be sold to someone else? I can’t bear to. I haven’t even touched her, how could I let someone else touch her?”

Que Yining raised an eyebrow: “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? You actually haven’t touched her. Xiao Qiao, my image of you has improved.”

Qiao Yuchu’s voice suddenly became dejected: “It’s not like you don’t know me. Pleasure comes first. It’s fine if she touches me, she…”

Qiao Yuchu sneered: “But after what happened today, I guess she probably wouldn’t feel comfortable touching me either. She even pretended not to know me today. Don’t you think she feels extremely wronged? Forced to sell herself, forced to serve a woman like me who isn’t even beautiful. And I’m always clinging to her. Am I being cheap, chasing after her? What kind of man or woman can’t I, Qiao Yuchu, get? Do I even care about her?”

The more Qiao Yuchu spoke, the angrier she became, almost making herself cry from anger.

“Don’t be angry. If you can’t bear to see her mistreated by others, just consider it a good deed. At worst, consider the money a loan or sponsorship, whatever works. If you’re unhappy, just break it off.”

While quickly sketching the layout she had seen on paper and writing keywords on the white sheet, Que Yining gave Qiao Yuchu advice.

Qiao Yuchu: “But I’m not reconciled! To put it bluntly, isn’t this just me paying for her, and her trying to please me? Why should I be the one full of anger while she’s happy?”

Que Yining said casually, “Then just tell her you’re not happy. Set some rules, make her understand her place.”

Society is just this realistic. If you accept something, you have to pay the corresponding price.

Que Yining reminded her: “You’d better straighten out your own position too. Her sweet talk might be aimed at your money. If you want to have a relationship with her, you need to make it clear to avoid misunderstandings.”

She looked at the simple scene she had drawn on the white paper, her eyes filled with deep thought.

The glass was shattered by Fu Wenjing, the blood was Fu Wenjing’s. It seemed he was trying to force himself to stay awake and then kick the original owner out.

In the fleeting, blurry images, the original owner came because she saw a text message. When the original owner arrived, Fu Wenjing in the room was already unconscious.

Did someone want to harm Fu Wenjing and use the original owner as a pawn, or did someone want to help the original owner?

Qiao Yuchu’s voice sounded from the other end of the phone, tinged with awkwardness: “It’s not like I want to be in a relationship with her.”

She started to change the subject: “By the way, Zhou Yueyi is having a birthday party. I heard Fu Wenjing will be there, and she said she’d invite you. She definitely doesn’t have good intentions. You absolutely mustn’t go.”

Que Yining thought for a moment before remembering who Zhou Yueyi was—the original owner’s former love rival, a pursuer of the male lead.

Que Yining said nonchalantly, “If she dares to invite me, I dare to go. Do you think she can bully me?”

Qiao Yuchu: “That’s true. Anyway, I’m off. I’m going to get a drink. Bye.”

If Fu Wenjing was really going, Que Yining definitely had to go. She wanted to ask Fu Wenjing about the two matters: his unconsciousness and the Chinese medicine. Did he know anything?

Thinking this, Que Yining said goodbye to Qiao Yuchu and sent a message to Gu Shanxue.

【Que Yining】: Shanxue, is the matter tricky?

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