Cheng Ying lived in the heart of the New City District. The outer walls of the towering skyscrapers glowed with a radiant, colorful light, perfectly accentuating the district’s atmosphere.
Wine, women, wealth, and vice; a world of ostentatious luxury.
The older, wealthy generation might prefer the quiet tranquility of a mountain retreat, but likewise, they couldn’t adapt to this new city filled with talking iron boxes.
This place belonged to the new rich who reveled in the clamor. Most of them believed that before they died, mechanical technology would advance to the point where they could assemble a new body for themselves. Consequently, they were nocturnal, spending 360 out of 365 days a year on the road to revelry. For the remaining five days, they would ride in a parade of floats composed of hundreds of convertibles, spraying champagne wantonly onto the spotless roads.
In the Old City District, this was of course an unthinkable affair. Setting aside whether they would be arrested on the spot for disturbing the peace, just the champagne sprayed into every nook and cranny, which would breed mosquitoes and flies and become unbearably smelly after two days, would be enough to bring the wheezing city to a halt for a couple of days.
But the New City District was equipped with the latest robotic cleaning system. It only took half an hour to restore all the city’s roads to their immaculate state.
The cost was naturally enormous, but no one cared.
After entering the New City District, the car moved onto a fixed driving track, and the steering wheel locked automatically. Cheng Ying reclined her seat, leaning back with one hand pillowed behind her head, looking for all the world like a vacationer lounging under a beach umbrella.
She turned to look at Jiang Hanguang. The woman was still sitting ramrod straight, but her face, leaning slightly toward the window, and the curious look in her eyes had already betrayed her feelings.
“Never been here before?” Cheng Ying was also curious. Logically, with the Feng family’s financial resources, they could certainly afford a house in the New City District. How could Jiang Hanguang, who had been their daughter-in-law for eight years, still be curious about these things?
Jiang Hanguang, feeling her gaze, shook her head honestly. “The Feng family’s villa is on Yuxi Mountain. I… didn’t go out much.”
Cheng Ying understood. Unlike Cheng’s Energy, Feng’s was a so-called “century-old establishment.” It wasn’t strange for them to maintain the old aristocracy’s preference for tranquility over activity.
Feng Nan, on the other hand, was a frequent visitor to the New City District, but who the hell would bring their unfavored, official wife along when they were out having fun?
Cheng Ying rolled down the car window, and the boisterous howls and screams from outside flooded in. It was only ten at night, the perfect time for all the demons to dance wildly.
The sudden blast of sound made Jiang Hanguang lean back slightly. Her sharp eyebrows furrowed unconsciously, revealing a hint of disdain.
Cheng Ying’s lips curled into a smile. She took a cold beer from the fridge, then, after a thought, grabbed another and lightly tapped Jiang Hanguang’s hand with it.
“Want one?”
Startled by the cold, Jiang Hanguang quickly turned. When she saw what was in Cheng Ying’s hand, her eyes widened, and she said seriously, “You can’t drink and drive.”
Cheng Ying laughed, gesturing out the window with the can. “They don’t check for drunk driving here. If they did, at least ninety-five percent of those guys down there would be locked up.”
Jiang Hanguang was momentarily speechless, but she maintained her serious tone. “You’d better not drink either. You still have that cut in your mouth. Drinking something so irritating could give you a canker sore.”
Cheng Ying: “…”
She had almost forgotten about that, and she hadn’t expected Jiang Hanguang to be the one to remind her.
After all, their relationship could only be considered newly acquainted. And since ancient times, people have encouraged revelry, not restraint. Advising someone to exercise restraint when they’re having a good time was an easy way to get disliked.
Xu Ning was very smart in this regard. Even if Cheng Ying partied for three days straight, running errands for her with dark circles under her eyes and looking half-dead, she would just smile coquettishly and say, “You’re the best,” never meddling in Cheng Ying’s affairs.
Usually so timid, yet surprisingly bold when it mattered.
Cheng Ying was stunned for a moment. She saw Jiang Hanguang turn her head away, her voice dropping a few degrees. “I’m just saying, but it’s still better not to drink…”
So Miss Jiang was just slow on the uptake, only realizing she’d overstepped after lecturing me?
Cheng Ying smiled again and, quite obediently, put both beers back in the fridge. “Thanks for the reminder, Hanguang. I won’t drink it.”
Only a fool would resent a friendly warning, and she was no fool.
“Mm, that’s good,” the woman replied softly, nodding without looking at her.
In that instant, Cheng Ying saw an extremely faint smile grace Jiang Hanguang’s profile, which was painted in a kaleidoscope of colors by the neon lights outside.
Under the lights, her plump, rosy lips had a hazy and alluring quality, like some kind of candy that melts in your mouth…
From Cheng Ying’s angle, she couldn’t see Jiang Hanguang’s eyes clearly, so it was difficult to discern her emotions. Thus, she suddenly had the urge to cup the woman’s chin and take a good look, to see what kind of scenery lay within those eyes.
She only knew it would surely be beautiful.
“Tsk.” Feeling her thoughts were a bit dangerous, Cheng Ying scratched her nose in a rare moment of embarrassment.
“I thought something was wrong with you, your heart is beating so fast.” The drama-watching Cheng Mantou, thoroughly annoyed by the beeping of Cheng Ying’s biometric alerts, said, “Ying, shouldn’t you go to the hospital? An irregular heartbeat is a medical condition…”
Before she could finish, the embarrassed and angry Boss Cheng muted her again.
Cheng Mantou, after cursing Cheng Ying out on the network, realized that ever since Jiang Hanguang appeared, the number of times she’d been muted had skyrocketed.
Could something be going on?
The car stopped directly in the private sky parking lot of Cheng Ying’s residence. To cater to the perverse tastes of rebellious youths, the developer had built the parking lot of this high-end ninth-floor apartment from special transparent glass.
It was all about the thrill of “one false step brings eternal regret.”
“Are you afraid of heights?” Cheng Ying only remembered this after seeing the parking lot. She had personally experienced the tragic scene of the acrophobic Xie Chengcheng clinging to her leg and crying her eyes out.
“A little.” Jiang Hanguang bit her lip in response to the question, then affirmed, “It’s okay, I can handle it.”
I don’t think you can.
Cheng Ying looked at Miss Jiang’s hand, which was gripping the corner of her clothes so tightly her knuckles were white, and couldn’t help but chuckle.
Even if one had to be strong, there was no need to go this far. Getting out of the car was like walking to the guillotine.
“You stay in the car for a moment.” Cheng Ying pushed Miss Jiang, who had closed her eyes as if ready for martyrdom, back into her seat. She got out of the car herself and grabbed both suitcases.
Jiang Hanguang’s suitcase wasn’t very big, and with Cheng Ying’s long, slender fingers, she could manage it with one hand.
She opened the other car door and saw an upright and tense Miss Jiang, her face expressionless with nervousness.
“You won’t be scared if you close your eyes.” Cheng Ying couldn’t help but smile again, extending her free hand. “I’ll hold your hand and guide you.”
“Thank you…” Jiang Hanguang didn’t hesitate, placing her hand in Cheng Ying’s palm and shutting her eyes tightly.
She squeezed them so tightly, as if there were man-eating monsters outside.
This doesn’t look like “a little” at all.
Cheng Ying suppressed her laughter, but her tone, for some reason, became increasingly gentle. She let go of the suitcases to help shield Jiang Hanguang’s head from the car roof. “Slowly, we’ll be there soon.”
She led Jiang Hanguang toward the door. Probably due to fear, the woman’s hand held hers very tightly. Cheng Ying could feel her delicate palm slick with sweat, like a piece of water-dampened silk in her grasp.
But even after she had led Jiang Hanguang into the apartment and turned back, the woman’s eyes were still shut tight.
So afraid, and yet so trusting of her.
Even someone as thick-skinned as Cheng Ying couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease, feeling unworthy of such trust.
So she said in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, “We’re here. You can open your eyes now.”
Jiang Hanguang’s bright, dark pupils obediently opened before her.
Like a newborn cub, she looked around with a hint of bewilderment, then her gaze fell on Cheng Ying, revealing a hint of a smile. “Mm.”
This time, without Cheng Mantou’s reminder, Cheng Ying could hear the sound of her own suddenly racing heart.
Jiang Hanguang, what kind of monster are you, exactly?
She clenched her fist, stepped aside, and said formally, “Welcome to, uh, my den. It looks a bit simple, I hope you don’t mind, Hanguang.”
As the tall Alpha moved aside, Jiang Hanguang finally got a clear view of the apartment.
It was obvious from the outside that the apartment’s area was not much smaller than a small villa, but Jiang Hanguang was still taken aback by the interior furnishings.
Because the inside was, just as Cheng Ying had said, a bit simple.
In fact, “a bit” was a polite way of putting it. Jiang Hanguang thought that even an unfurnished new house would have more of a human touch than this place.
The living room, which seemed especially empty due to the sparse furniture and large area, only had a few necessary items like a sofa and a table. There wasn’t even a video player.
The only thing that somewhat matched Cheng Ying’s personality was the person-high wine cabinet behind the sofa. The dazzling array of famous wines from top to bottom proclaimed the owner’s love for drinking.
The black-and-white color scheme further deepened the room’s sense of cold desolation.
It hardly looked like a place where a living person resided.
Seeing Jiang Hanguang’s astonished expression, Cheng Ying realized this might be a bit inappropriate.
A profligate whose main persona was one of debauchery was living in what looked like an unfinished apartment. This was too out of character.
But she hadn’t thought that far ahead when she decided to bring Jiang Hanguang here. It was firstly for safety, and secondly to annoy Lu Sigui, who was always glaring and fuming at her.
So what kind of monster was Jiang Hanguang, exactly? Did she come with a debuff that lowers intelligence?
Cheng Ying felt she should try to come up with an excuse. If it didn’t work, it wasn’t a big deal. Who decreed that a profligate couldn’t have a desolate heart?
“Ahem, I just bought this place not long ago, haven’t had time to…”
“Hello~” A cute, mechanical female voice suddenly appeared, drawing both of their attention. A round, white robot in every sense of the word “rolled” in front of Jiang Hanguang, a blushing, winking emoji flashing on its electronic screen.
“Wow, this is the first time you’ve brought someone home. What a beautiful young lady! Welcome, you can call me for anything. I’m the robot butler here. Now, let’s have a warm hug~” With that, it extended its round arms to embrace Jiang Hanguang.
Cheng Ying: “…” Why couldn’t she remember installing such an affected voice pack for her robot butler?
Cheng Mantou’s voice rang in her mind, “Finally broke through the block. Can’t you speak properly next time? What kind of hero mutes people for no reason? Hurry up and thank me. I helped you shift the focus and establish your good Alpha image. You have to be attentive when pursuing someone. Where in the world could you find an intelligent brain as considerate as me? Ah, the great beauty is hugging me, she smells so good…”
Cheng Ying expressionlessly muted her and looked down to see Jiang Hanguang had actually knelt down to hug this AI that was asking for trouble. She reached out and lifted the woman out of the robot’s embrace. “Don’t mind her. She’s just an emotionless machine. She’ll hug anyone she sees, has no manners at all. I’ll send her for after-sales service and repairs another day.”
Jiang Hanguang glanced at the robot, which had a wronged, crying expression on its screen, and said hesitantly, “I don’t think it’s a big deal. Don’t send her away, she’s crying…”
Cheng Ying could almost imagine Cheng Mantou’s triumphant laughter, and her face darkened further. She switched off the robot butler’s power with a click.
“She’s faking it.”
Jiang Hanguang: “?”
Didn’t you say she was emotionless?
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