Chapter 26: Classmate A
This was probably the coldest tone Fu Sizhuo had used since they married more than half a month ago.
Shen Zhuying froze mid-step, unwillingly dragging her feet one by one toward him.
She stood obediently before the man, looking exactly like someone who had done something wrong.
“Nothing you want to say to me?” Fu Sizhuo tapped the rim of his cup and asked.
“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of being drunk to go into your room, shouldn’t have called you husband, and even less should I have taken advantage of you. These kinds of things should be mutual, and I’m not the type to forcibly—”
The girl lowered her eyes and poured out all her words of confession in one breath. Fu Sizhuo’s temples throbbed as his face grew darker and darker.
After a long pause, he rubbed his cheek, then actually laughed in exasperation.
“Who said I cared about those things?” He raised his eyes at her.
“Ah?” Shen Zhuying’s eyes visibly lit up.
“You don’t care? That’s great.”
“Fu Sizhuo, you really are such a tolerant man.”
She gave him two big thumbs-up.
“Mm, I am.” Fu Sizhuo smiled.
“So who is Classmate A?”
“Classmate A?”
Shen Zhuying’s eyes slowly widened as she finally remembered the enormous disaster she had caused.
Panic flashed through her almond-shaped eyes, quickly turning into feigned confusion. “What Classmate A?”
She rubbed her head and said, “I think… I blacked out…”
Fu Sizhuo: “…”
Such terrible acting.
He tugged at the corner of his lips. “Really?”
“Of course. Haha, look at the fuss this caused. I’ll never drink again next time.”
Fu Sizhuo set the newspaper down, fixing his gaze on her.
Shen Zhuying guiltily averted her eyes.
After a long silence, he suddenly smiled, drawing out each word with deliberate emphasis:
“Then last night, when Mrs. Fu forcibly kissed me—”
He intentionally paused.
“—you don’t remember either?”
“You sto—” Shen Zhuying clenched her teeth, instinctively wanting to refute, but in the end swallowed the last word. Pretending ignorance, she said, “—don’t remember. I shouldn’t have been that rough, right?”
She enunciated the word rough very heavily.
“Not remembering doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Fu Sizhuo’s expression remained calm and serene.
If Shen Zhuying didn’t know for certain that she never blacked out when drinking, she might almost have believed his nonsense.
Step by step, he closed in on her, gently lifted her chin, his gaze trailing down from top to bottom, finally fixing on the girl’s flushed lips.
For a long while, he watched as her blush spread from behind her ears down to the base of her neck, only then withdrawing his hand in satisfaction.
Before Shen Zhuying could even breathe a sigh of relief, the man wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into him. He leaned to her ear, warm breath brushing against her earlobe.
His voice carried laughter, with an edge of undisguised wickedness.
“Last night, Mrs. Fu—”
“Pressed me onto the bed, and to me—”
“Un-able-to-control-myself.”
“De-mand-ing-without-limits.”
“No-ta-boos-at-all.”
“Such a pity, Mrs. Fu has no memory of any of it.”
His tone was full of regret, as if she were some shameless scoundrel who, after eating her fill and wiping her mouth clean, pulled up her pants and denied everything.
“I—” Shen Zhuying was speechless, finally forcing out one line: “I did something like that?”
What did he mean she had pressed him down last night, unable to control herself, demanding without restraint, without a single taboo?
Clearly he was twisting black into white, confusing truth with lies, spouting nonsense, distorting the facts!
Yet the man nodded solemnly, even looking considerate. “If Mrs. Fu doesn’t remember, there’s no need to force it. After all—”
He chuckled softly, reminding her of the excuse she had just used: “—you blacked out from drinking.”
Shen Zhuying nearly ground her teeth to dust. “…You could have resisted.”
His smile grew even more flamboyant. “Our bond is too legitimate, Mrs. Fu.”
“You told me—” Fu Sizhuo lowered his gaze on her, enunciating with extreme ambiguity, “—husbands and wives are supposed to sleep in the same bed.”
Shen Zhuying jerked her head up. “What I clearly meant was—”
“What was it?” He raised a brow, sounding righteous even while twisting logic.
She let out a breath. “Nothing. I’m going to eat breakfast.”
So this is what it meant to eat bitterness in silence, with no way to explain.
Now Shen Zhuying truly understood.
She sat at the dining table, cheeks flushed red with anger as she recalled his ridiculous words just now. Shen Zhuying’s Marriage Rule No. 2—Never believe a single word from Mr. Fu, because at heart he was a glib, honey-tongued butterfly spirit!
And at that very moment, Mr. Fu sat leisurely to the side, a faintly amused curve on his lips as he read the newspaper.
Mrs. Fu was truly entertaining to tease.
But still… who exactly was this Classmate A?
—
After the Beginning of Winter, the temperature in the Northern City plummeted. Bitter winds swept through, and only a sparse few customers came to the shop.
Shen Zhuying brewed herself a cup of coffee, picked up a book, and lounged lazily by the window, reading absentmindedly.
It was the very book Fu Sizhuo had been reading these past days, something on international politics, utterly dull. Before long, Shen Zhuying grew drowsy, her eyelids barely able to stay open.
The chime of the wind bell rang at the door as a customer pushed it open.
Shen Zhuying snapped the book shut, turned, and smiled. “Welcome to Hua Jian Ji!”
The one who entered was an astonishingly beautiful woman.
Wavy hair in ash-brown cascaded down her shoulders, a warm-colored knit sweater traced out her graceful figure, her skin pale as snow, her whole bearing cool yet elegant.
“Zhuzhu.” She tilted her head with a smile. “Long time no see.”
“Campus Belle Sister!” Shen Zhuying stood excitedly, a flash of surprise brightening her eyes. “It’s been so long, I couldn’t reach you at all after you graduated.”
When it came to the word campus belle, the first image that sprang to most people’s minds was probably someone proud, dazzling, and out of reach.
But during Shen Zhuying’s student days, whenever she heard others talk about the campus belle, what she heard was endless slander and ridicule.
“Did you hear? Today that so-called campus belle went into Teacher Ma’s office again, just the two of them.”
“Teacher Ma has a wife already, being a mistress, how shameless.”
“Look at how she usually dresses, not like a student at all, showing so much skin, must have altered her school uniform.”
“Wen Mukui seems like she sells herself, someone saw her face on one of those websites, the tag was
#PureCampusBelle…”
“For real? Though she really does look like it…”
“Seems pretty real, someone even claimed they saw her at one of those places on the weekend…”
“…”
From her figure, appearance, clothing, to even her private life, Wen Mukui endured almost all-around defamation and cyberbullying.
She was a year ahead of Shen Zhuying.
In a certain sense, the most sensational figure of Jingbei High wasn’t Fu Sizhuo or Qi Zhou, but Wen Mukui.
Her every move would be magnified on the school forum, then stirred up and debated over and over again.
Shen Zhuying brewed a cup of coffee. The milk froth pulled into a silky strand, forming a little heart on top.
She handed the coffee to Wen Mukui, rested her chin on one hand, admired the beauty for a moment, then smiled. “Sister Wen, did you come especially to find me today? How did you know I opened a flower shop here?”
“Mm, I heard from someone a few days ago. I originally planned to come find you on the day of the Start of Winter, but that day you were with your husband in the back room for a long time, and I had something urgent, so I left first. These past few days I finally found the time to come see you.”
Wen Mukui lowered her gaze, took a small sip of the coffee, her smile gentle.
