Zhong Chu’s hand froze in mid-air. The earlier irritability came rushing back, and she withdrew her hand to press against her aching brow, finding An Yanqing’s face increasingly an eyesore the more she looked at it.
What was she thinking?
She also wanted to know why she had made such a bizarre gesture.
Neither spoke again. An Yanqing retreated several steps, creating a wide distance between them—much like the gap that symbolized their discord during their marriage registration earlier that day. The night wind stirred their clothes, the faint rustling sound almost imperceptible.
Zhong Chu couldn’t help but glance at her profile. An Yanqing stood quietly, eyes lowered, her expression unreadable. The atmosphere was heavy; they seemed to have nothing to say to each other. Yet, An Yanqing didn’t check her phone or do anything else to kill the time.
With Zhong Chu standing on the higher ground, she blocked the light, leaving An Yanqing’s figure buried within her shadow.
In this light, she didn’t look like the calm, collected superstar under the spotlight of a press conference. Instead, she looked a bit… solitary?
The moment the word “lonely” popped into her head, Zhong Chu’s brow twitched.
Applying such a word to An Yanqing—especially considering how sharp-tongued she was, always striking exactly where it hurt—made Zhong Chu grind her teeth and look away.
As expected, she still hated this bastard.
The little assistant drove up and rolled down the window. Seeing Zhong Chu there, she jumped in fright. “M-Ms. Zhong?”
Clearly, she was well aware of the animosity between them. Seeing the situation, she assumed another conflict had broken out. So nervous her hand crept down instinctively to grab her phone, she was ready to call for backup at any moment.
Zhong Chu wasn’t a fool; the assistant’s every thought was written on her face. With a scoff, she pulled open the back door and slid inside.
Her relaxed, effortless manner made it seem as though she were treating An Yanqing’s staff like her own personal chauffeur.
The assistant shot a cautious look in the rearview mirror, then looked at An Yanqing. “Sister An…”
An Yanqing said nothing and got into the passenger seat. “Please take us home first.”
The assistant was even more shocked, but she didn’t dare ask questions in front of Zhong Chu. Having badmouthed Zhong Chu behind her back, she felt a sense of trepidation when faced with that stunning face and the temperament of someone who refused to suffer the slightest grievance.
But these two were going to Sister An’s house together?
The assistant gripped the steering wheel in silence, secretly praying for a peaceful night.
It was currently the peak of rush hour, and the roads were heavily congested. The cars were packed together like a dense swarm of steel snails.
Their car was wedged in the middle, unable to move forward or back.
The assistant wasn’t surprised. During the wait, she didn’t forget to hand An Yanqing a bottle of milk. “Sister An, drink something to line your stomach so your hypoglycemia doesn’t act up.”
Before An Yanqing could take it, an arm appeared out of nowhere and snatched the milk away.
Zhong Chu hijacked the bottle, examined it for a moment, and looked at her through the rearview mirror. “Didn’t that get better before? Why do you have low blood sugar again?”
Inside the car, An Yanqing had removed her hat and mask, revealing the face Zhong Chu knew so well.
The mirror framed her perfectly. As she moved, a few stray strands of hair fell, softening her overly sharp features. Shadows flowed across the window, and the dim light danced ambiguously with her bright red lips, tempering her icy aura into something softer.
An Yanqing’s presence matched the characters she played perfectly. When Zhong Chu had watched her work—initially with the intent to find faults—she had been forced to grudgingly admit that An Yanqing had both the talent and the looks to thrive in the entertainment industry.
An Yanqing’s hand grasped at empty air. she looked up slightly, though she didn’t seem intent on taking the milk back.
However, Zhong Chu’s sudden mention of the past caused her to lock eyes with her through the mirror for a brief moment. She replied simply, “My schedule has been erratic lately.”
The assistant added from the side, “The night scenes for Perfect Lover were too many, and the filming schedule was rushed. After months of high-intensity filming, followed immediately by the promotional tour, Sister An’s internal clock hasn’t been able to reset.”
The assistant usually didn’t talk much to outsiders. Though she was blunt, she wasn’t entirely indiscreet. She interjected now because she knew the “little ancestor” Zhong Chu was going home with An Yanqing tonight; she wanted to garner some sympathy for her boss.
She hoped to prevent a conflict tonight, fearing that her boss—already in poor health—would be harassed by Zhong Chu into a sleepless night.
Zhong Chu could sense her little scheme. She idly toyed with the milk bottle, a low, ambiguous hum escaping her lips.
They had been busy with the marriage registration all afternoon. An Yanqing hadn’t eaten, and neither had Zhong Chu. Under her grandfather’s strict supervision, her routine was usually very regular, and by now, her stomach was practically stuck to her spine.
When the assistant took the item earlier, Zhong Chu noticed it was the only thing available to tide them over. She couldn’t bring herself to ask an outsider for food, but since it was in An Yanqing’s hands…
She gripped the milk and said to the An Yanqing in the mirror with total entitlement: “I’m hungry.”
An Yanqing’s tense shoulders relaxed as she leaned back against the seat. She looked back at her and curled her lip slightly. “Hungry? Didn’t the drinks at the bar satisfy the Eldest Miss’s appetite while she was enjoying herself this afternoon?”
Zhong Chu knew An Yanqing’s vengeful nature well; she wasn’t surprised that she was still dwelling on the afternoon phone call that had nearly deafened her. She leaned forward slightly, intentionally waving the milk in front of An Yanqing.
The moving white bottle was like a piece of fresh bait, and An Yanqing’s eyes instinctively followed its trajectory.
Zhong Chu’s voice softened, taking on a long, languid drawl. Though her tone was bossy, it sounded like a soft, silky pout, making it impossible to find annoying.
“An Yanqing, give me half.”
An Yanqing’s brow twitched. Her hand instinctively went to her collar, feeling a sudden urge to undo a third button.
Reason stopped her, but it made her realize clearly that the slight feeling of breathlessness wasn’t coming from the constriction of her collar.
She slowly traced the buttons of her shirt, her gaze meeting Zhong Chu’s and pulling away instantly. She said coolly, “Eldest Miss Zhong, how impressive—you’re actually fighting me for a bottle of milk?”
The growling in Zhong Chu’s stomach came in wave after wave, which she tried to quiet by pressing her other hand against it. It had been a long time since she had felt the sting of hunger, and this sensation was particularly aggressive and difficult to endure.
“I’m hungry.” The Eldest Miss Zhong considered herself someone who knew when to yield and when to stand tall; besides, her logic was simple. Snatched something away right in front of her rival’s face was a satisfying feat—enough to offset the awkwardness of bowing her head to An Yanqing.
An Yanqing watched her for a long while before letting go of her collar button and exhaling a helpless sigh. “It’s all yours.”
Zhong Chu gripped the milk, sitting back with a look of smug satisfaction.
This little interlude didn’t change much, though the assistant, having heard the entire exchange, looked slightly bewildered. Between maneuvers on the road, she couldn’t help but steal several glances in the rearview mirror.
Miss Zhong had laid out a tissue, carefully drinking the milk without letting her lips touch the rim of the bottle directly. Meanwhile, Sister An rested her elbow against the car window, staring calmly at the scenery outside.
This scene lacked the intense smell of gunpowder that had surrounded them all day. The indescribable chemistry in their dialogue almost sounded… indulgent and warm.
As the assistant dithered in a daze, An Yanqing’s gaze suddenly snapped toward her. “Keep your eyes on the road.”
Though her tone wasn’t harsh, it made the assistant’s scalp tingle. She felt the guilty pang of a student caught daydreaming by the dean.
“Yes—!” The assistant nodded like a woodpecker, not daring to let her mind wander again.
As they neared home, Zhong Chu suddenly poked An Yanqing’s back and handed the milk bottle over.
Her finger was clumsy with its pressure, poking exactly where she had pinched An Yanqing purple earlier. This was a direct hit; the itchy soreness she had been suppressing surged back violently alongside a sharp pain.
An Yanqing felt a headache coming on. She couldn’t help but touch the spot where she’d been poked, trying to soothe the sensation.
Zhong Chu had completely forgotten her previous “evil deeds” and had no idea An Yanqing was allergic to the ink pad. Seeing her reaction, she found it quite novel. “An Yanqing, it was just a poke. Is your body really that sensitive?”
An Yanqing knew she didn’t mean anything by it—it was just ill-intentioned teasing—but the phrase itself was enough to spark wild, vividly colored imaginations.
Like a bratty kid with a new toy, Zhong Chu reached out to poke her again. An Yanqing leaned toward the right side of the seat, practically pressing herself against the door to avoid the touch. She turned back with a helpless look. “Zhong Chu, stop it.”
That damn rebellious streak—it was uncontrollable.
Especially upon hearing An Yanqing say that, the malicious impulse already stirring in Zhong Chu became even more pronounced.
As An Yanqing moved, Zhong Chu caught a glimpse of the corner of the little red book—the marriage certificate—peeking out of her pocket. Her lips curled into a smirk, and she leaned forward, intentionally drawing out her words.
“An Yanqing, if your body is this sensitive… what are you going to do later when we’re in bed together?”
Fortunately, the seatbelt acted as a restraint, preventing her from leaning all the way forward. Otherwise, An Yanqing had no doubt that with Zhong Chu’s wicked temperament, she would have leaned in close to her neck, poking her while whispering that sentence directly into her ear.
Even without reaching such an extreme, the casual mention of “in bed” caused An Yanqing’s mind to go blank for a split second.
Beside them, the assistant stared fixedly at the road ahead, her eyes not daring to stray anywhere. She only hoped these two would completely ignore her existence and continue to treat her like thin air.
The sight of Sister An being flirted with was something unheard of—a spectacle she hadn’t even dared to imagine!
An Yanqing’s senses were a bit dazed by the bombshell Zhong Chu had dropped. She blinked slowly, meeting Zhong Chu’s smiling expression. Her lips moved, and she managed a strained response: “…Zhong Chu, what kind of pipe dream are you having?”
The space in the car was only so large. No matter how hard An Yanqing tried to hide, she couldn’t escape Zhong Chu’s intrusion.
The poking was itchy, with the force of a cat’s light scratch. Combined with the fact that Zhong Chu seemed to have a knack for it, she managed to strike exactly where it was most uncomfortable.
An Yanqing was forced to dodge again and again, her posture uncharacteristically flustered. “Zhong Chu!”
After playing for a while, Zhong Chu finally grew tired and withdrew her hand with waning interest.
She pointed her finger in the air toward An Yanqing’s lower back, her jade-like fingertip slowly sliding upward—past the straight spine, the smooth neck, and the increasingly tense profile.
Finally, her slender finger tapped An Yanqing’s tightly pressed red lips. Her movement stopped, and she suddenly laughed. “An Yanqing, today is the day we got our certificate. It’s a good day. How do you feel about tonight?”
“After all, we are a legal couple.” She dropped her hand and crossed her arms, watching An Yanqing’s face with practiced ease. She slowly let out a final line: “A moment of the wedding night is worth a thousand pieces of gold, you know~”