A bad person.
Ruan Li was a truly bad person.
Xu Mengzhou bit down hard on the tip of Ruan Li’s tongue, sucking at it as if indulging in a perfectly ripe persimmon…intent on swallowing all that soft, fragrant, honeyed sweetness whole.
Or perhaps Ruan Li was a banyan tree and Xu Mengzhou was a hummingbird, tirelessly hovering, plunging her beak into the freshly opened hollow to drink her fill.
Yet right now, as Xu Mengzhou wrapped her arms around Ruan Li’s waist and expertly flipped them over…pinning her underneath…she caught a tiny, muffled grunt. It sounded like a plush bunny toy being squeezed, emitting a soft, squeaky murmur.
And suddenly, she thought Ruan Li being bad wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.
It gave her all the more reason to kiss her.
When a debt needed collecting, someone was bound to find pleasure in it…and kissing was no exception.
She could kiss her as she pleased: pecking at her softly, licking her greedily, or nipping at her plush lips like a habit. Her five fingers toyed with Ruan Li’s face like plucking harp strings…idly stroking her cheeks, pinching her earlobes, and carelessly wiping away her tears.
Their noses brushed together, breathing in the air each other exhaled, as though drawing a piece of the other person directly into their own lungs.
Gauging the fire burning inside her heart, Xu Mengzhou finally propped herself up after wiping away Ruan Li’s tears for the third time.
“How dare you buy off my assistant?”
That was what she had intended to demand. But by the time the thought crossed her lips, it came out as: “Why did you get back so late?”
The ferocious momentum she had built up completely evaporated, leaving her sounding like someone nursing a bitter, jealous grudge.
“I spent some time picking out a gift,” Ruan Li said softly. “I wanted to congratulate you on getting your cast off.”
The corners of her eyes were flushed red, looking as if they had been dusted with a layer of rouge. Her tear-glistening eyes were extraordinarily bright…like a clear, shimmering brook flowing through a quiet forest.
Xu Mengzhou’s hand remained pressed against the side of Ruan Li’s face, holding her in a position of complete dominance.
Yet Ruan Li’s defense was so impeccably reasonable that Xu Mengzhou’s palm began to feel numb. Her rehearsed interrogation had slipped out from under her, sliding miles away like stepping on grease.
She pulled Ruan Li up into a sitting position and thoughtfully pulled out a tissue to wipe the damp traces from her face. “Is that so… What kind of gift did you buy?”
Ruan Li tilted her head back obediently, her eyes half-closed.
Her lips were still swollen and fiery red, looking as though she had just devoured a scorching hotpot.
“Marvel’s newest piece,” she said. “It’s in my bag.”
“I’ll go get it!” Xu Mengzhou was about to jump up immediately. She bounded off the sofa, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Ruan Li still half-kneeling, leaning sideways against the backrest with her hands neatly folded over her lap…just like a classic portrait of a maiden.
A sudden wave of softness hit Xu Mengzhou’s heart, feeling like taking a bite out of a warm, freshly steamed rice cake.
She leaned down and pressed a swift kiss against the tip of Ruan Li’s nose.
The heartbeat never lied; it was the world’s most honest truth serum.
Her heart was thumping, vibrating at the rapid frequency of a honeybee beating its wings while gathering pollen.
Xu Mengzhou dug through the bag and found an azure-blue jewelry box. A blue enamel necklace lay quietly atop a bed of white silk.
It resembled a real dragonfly…with precious gemstones for eyes and fine gold wire tracing its wings. In transparent shades of blue and gold, it looked as though it were resting softly upon a cloud.
“It’s beautiful!”
“Let me put it on for you.”
Ruan Li took the necklace, but instead of moving behind her, she stayed face-to-face. Wrapping her arms around Xu Mengzhou’s neck like a warm embrace, she fastened the clasp behind her.
She was like a scented sachet voluntarily leaping right into Xu Mengzhou’s arms.
“I don’t think you’re up to any good,” Xu Mengzhou murmured.
Her voice was hushed, like a nightingale brushing past leaves in the dark.
The slight flutter of air she created was just enough to ruffle the stray hairs at Ruan Li’s temples.
“Do you like it?”
“I like it.”
Ruan Li let out a quiet laugh. Lifting her eyes, her lips hovered tantalizingly close to Xu Mengzhou’s cheek. “I meant the necklace.”
“I like that too.”
“Don’t think bribery works on me,” Xu Mengzhou grumbled, wrapping her arms around Ruan Li like a needy teddy bear and refusing to let go. “You aren’t allowed to poach the people around me.”
How dare you reach your hands into my territory?
As she spoke, she couldn’t resist lightly pinching the soft flesh at Ruan Li’s waist.
It started as a playful warning, but after a couple of pinches, her palm subconsciously cupped her waist. Her fingers spread wider…like a Venus flytrap closing in to trap its prey.
Inhaling the cool, bone-deep fragrance of Ruan Li’s skin, Xu Mengzhou rested her chin on her shoulder, blinking lazily.
Before she could enjoy the moment for long, Ruan Li gave her a gentle push. “You’re too heavy.”
“If you don’t promise, I’m just going to keep pressing down on you.” Xu Mengzhou mischief-maker blew softly into Ruan Li’s ear. The sachet in her arms squirted away in a flurry of shivers, shaking as if hung with delicate little bells.
“I was wrong,” Ruan Li shrank her neck back, surrendering. “I really can’t hold myself up anymore.”
She was already weak to begin with, and laughing completely drained whatever strength she had left. She began to slide downward, but Xu Mengzhou instantly caught her, scooping her up by the waist and placing her down gently onto the tatami mat.
“I should have asked you before approaching Assistant Yang,” Ruan Li said softly. “I won’t pay her any more bonuses.”
Ruan Li knew that this was the real root of Xu Mengzhou’s annoyance.
“You’d better still pay her; she’s completely obsessed with money,” Xu Mengzhou huffed with a small laugh, wrinkling her nose as her lingering irritation dissolved in an instant.
She had only been slightly dissatisfied with Ruan Li acting behind her back.
Besides… She grabbed Ruan Li’s hand, her thumb tracing over the faint ring of tooth marks on her index finger, her brows arching upward.
The interest had already been collected in full.
“The ring looks nice.” Xu Mengzhou glanced at the massive sapphire…an exquisitely crafted, high-profile piece of jewelry. It didn’t quite feel like Ruan Li’s usual understated style.
“It’s a wedding ring,” Ruan Li said. “You picked it out.”
“A wedding ring! Right… I’m married.” Xu Mengzhou gasped in sudden realization. She looked down at her own hands…she wore nothing except a black watch on her left wrist.
Her ten fingers were completely bare.
As if anticipating her confusion, Ruan Li explained smoothly, “You didn’t want to go public with our marriage in the entertainment industry, so you usually don’t wear your ring.”
She held back any further explanations…like how Xu Mengzhou was afraid of trouble or gossip. If she said those things, Xu Mengzhou would definitely suspect something, because Xu Mengzhou was never someone who cared about what other people thought.
After all, Ruan Li’s ring had also been put on after the amnesia. It was a random piece Xu Mengzhou had casually chosen. Aside from being worn at the wedding, this multi-million-dollar piece of jewelry had been stashed away at random, never seeing the light of day again.
Because Ruan Li simply said she didn’t want to wear it, Xu Mengzhou suspected nothing. She even grabbed Ruan Li’s hand to examine it closely. “Where is my ring kept then?”
“In the bottom drawer of your jewelry box, inside a small red box.”
“Oh.”
With that settled, they slipped into their usual nighttime routine…one taking a shower, one heating up soup, one going to sleep early, and the other staying up a bit later.
The next morning, Xu Mengzhou got up on her own and headed off to work as usual. As her hand turned the door handle, the sapphire on her ring finger sparkled brightly in the light.
“Don’t forget to bring back some local specialties, Boss! Dried fruit, tea leaves, whatever…the more, the better!” Han Shutong’s noisy voice message played out. The background noise was chaotic, filled with whinnying horses and gusts of wind that chopped her words into ragged fragments.
Xu Mengzhou offered a few casual agreements before switching her phone to airplane mode right before takeoff.
She had chosen a window seat, with Ruan Li sitting beside her. Assistant Yang was following the crew for filming, so only Ruan Li’s assistant, Zhang Qiong, had come along. Zhang Qiong sat across the aisle next to a passenger wearing a black face mask.
The roaring hum of the jet engines echoed outside the window. The sensation of climbing felt like riding a carousel, and Xu Mengzhou actually quite enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness.
But when she turned her head, a deathly pale face barged into her line of sight.
Ruan Li was naturally fair-skinned…snowy and refined like delicate porcelain, with the faint blue veins on her wrists resembling tree branches painted onto fine glaze.
Right now, however, her face looked drained of blood. Even the faint pink tint on her lips had faded completely, and her brows were knitted tightly into deep furrows.
Xu Mengzhou gasped, startled. “What’s wrong?”
“Just air sickness… I already took some medicine.”
Ruan Li’s lips parted faintly, her voice as faint as a passing breeze.
“There are candies in my pocket.” She turned her head away, looking terribly weak, a look of quiet endurance etched across her face.
Xu Mengzhou knew Ruan Li had a delicate constitution and always suffered from weak energy; it was obvious at a single glance. She spoke softly, walked slowly, and a slight bump would leave her bruised.
Even so, Xu Mengzhou had never imagined that a simple flight could make Ruan Li suffer this badly.
Reaching into Ruan Li’s coat pocket, she found several glucose tablets…likely prepared well in advance.
Xu Mengzhou tore open the packaging and fed one to Ruan Li.
Ruan Li’s lips felt cold…like a delicate snowflake brushing lightly against Xu Mengzhou’s fingertips.
The plane was still ascending, so cabin service hadn’t started yet, and Xu Mengzhou had zero experience dealing with motion sickness.
After a moment of hesitation, Xu Mengzhou shifted over to the left. She lifted her arm and gently pressed Ruan Li’s head down to rest against her shoulder.
The sweet, artificial strawberry flavor dissolved in Ruan Li’s mouth, and the shoulder pillowing her head acted like a catalyst…transforming that mild sweetness into rich, heavy honey that made her teeth ache.
Ruan Li kept her eyes half-closed. The deafening roar of the plane’s engines softened into a blur of white noise, and even her physical discomfort seemed to drift far away.
In truth, she had never dared to believe she would ever get what she truly desired.
Ruan Li had always considered herself an unlucky person. After her mother passed away, she was brought home by Madam Xu. In the beginning, she had been intensely cautious and reserved.
Her mother had loved her, but she had loved herself more…and she had hated the father who betrayed her even more deeply than that. She had granted her former lover too much power, so when the time came to cut ties, it was as agonizing as scraping bone.
In the end, even her departure hadn’t been a clean success.
The love Ruan Li received had always been fractured and strange. So many heavy expectations had been forced upon her, obligating her fragile body…where even breathing felt like a burden…to endure endless lessons and force-feed herself knowledge.
She hadn’t even gone to a real school, receiving all her education at home instead.
For a long time, she believed that this was simply what families were like.
Everyone carried love and hate, forging those emotions into sharp daggers to thrust at one another, refusing to stop until one side perished.
Then, she arrived at the Xu household and met Xu Mengzhou.
Xu Mengzhou was like a blazing sun. She radiated warmth, but that intense heat could just as easily scorch a person to death. She wasn’t overly generous with her warmth either, reserving her goodness strictly for those she personally accepted.
When Madam Xu asked Xu Mengzhou to look after her, Xu Mengzhou had managed to do so begrudgingly for two days before growing tired of her fragile state. She naturally excluded Ruan Li from her inner circle of friends.
She had even begun to find Ruan Li annoying.
Was that how the story was supposed to go?
It didn’t match any of the novels she had read.
Yet Xu Mengzhou was simply too dazzling to ignore.
She would ride her skateboard, gliding all the way down the staircase handrail before leaping off at the end. Sweat and skateboard would spin together in the air before being stomped firmly back beneath her feet.
She played basketball, jumping impossibly high. Her jersey would billow in the wind, looking as if a pair of transparent wings had sprouted beneath her ribs to lift her into the sky…how else could anyone jump that high?
She laughed loudly, she ran freely, and she seemed to never know fatigue.
Yet Xu Mengzhou refused physical contact with others. Even when her best friend tried to sling an arm over her shoulder, she would laughingly dodge away or push them off directly.
And yet now… Ruan Li was resting right against her shoulder. One of Xu Mengzhou’s arms was wrapped around her back, resting gently on her waist and lightly patting her.
They had shared an intense kiss last night. The same the day before. Every single day.
To be alive was to be insatiable.
Ruan Li closed her eyes to rest, letting her breathing settle into a steady rhythm.
No one could blame her for taking an inch and wanting a mile.
She simply wanted more.