Xie Weiyi couldn’t handle her liquor, usually blacking out after two drinks.
Therefore, it was only after watching Xie Weiyi swallow her second glass of wine that Jiang Tong dared to muster up the courage to bring up her request for Xie Weiyi to call her “teammate.”
What Jiang Tong didn’t know, however, was that over the past seven years of separation, Xie Weiyi’s alcohol tolerance had been built up. While she still couldn’t drink a thousand cups without dropping, two drinks were long past being her limit; she was still completely sober right now.
Xie Weiyi turned her head to see Jiang Tong looking down as she picked up food, her thick eyelashes casting shadows beneath her eyes.
Despite the fact that she was chewing, Jiang Tong couldn’t suppress the smile at the corners of her mouth, which were curving upward slightly.
“So, Jiang Tong only dared to call me captain because she thought I was drunk? Only dared to reveal her happiness because she thought I was drunk?” Xie Weiyi thought to herself, yet seeing Jiang Tong looking so happy, she felt a long-dormant spot deep within her chest gently collapse and soften as well.
Lowering her head to look at her own fingertips which Jiang Tong had been holding, she feigned drunkenness by gently leaning her head against Jiang Tong’s shoulder, opening her mouth with a cheeky,耍賴 (acting shamelessly spoiled) expression: “Ah—feed me.”
“Huh?!” The hand holding Jiang Tong’s chopsticks stiffened.
Her fair cheeks dyed with a breathtaking, vivid crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye, spreading from her cheeks all the way to her earlobes, even tinting her slender neck a faint pink.
Watching Jiang Tong blush to this extent, Xie Weiyi felt overjoyed beyond measure, blinking as she continued to fake drunkenness.
“Feed me, Tongtong,” Xie Weiyi urged.
Jiang Tong tilted her head slightly, seeing Xie Weiyi’s glass-colored eyes looking as though they had been soaked in moisture, veiled in a hazy mist. When she looked at her, her gaze rippled seductively.
At this moment, Xie Weiyi’s drunken state heavily overlapped with that figure in Jiang Tong’s memories.
Xie Weiyi’s abysmal alcohol tolerance was their secret.
Back then, just a tiny bit of alcohol could make Xie Weiyi strip away all her defenses, transforming her from the proud, dazzling mixed-race beauty of ordinary days into a clingy, nonsense-babbling little tail.
When drunk, Xie Weiyi loved clinging to Jiang Tong’s arm, bickering and confessing her feelings incoherently in accented Mandarin. When she woke up the next day, she would open wide, blank, innocent eyes, evidently having completely forgotten her own heroic feats from the previous night.
Looking at Xie Weiyi—whose cheeks were flushed and whose gaze was hazy before her—the thought popped into Jiang Tong’s mind: “So, feeding her some porridge should be fine, right? She’ll forget all about it when she wakes up tomorrow morning anyway.”
Perhaps she could afford to indulge herself just a little bit, touching a boundary she would never dare cross in broad daylight.
“Alright…” Jiang Tong responded softly.
She heard her own voice sounding softer than usual, even carrying an imperceptible, light tremor.
Steadying her slightly trembling hand, she used a spoon to scoop up a small, warm mouthful of seafood porridge.
Jiang Tong’s movements were very slow and extremely careful. As she brought the spoon to Xie Weiyi’s lips, her fingertips could sense the warm breath of Xie Weiyi, laced with a faint trace of alcohol.
Xie Weiyi leaned against her shoulder just like that, raising her chin with her glass-colored eyes half-closed, shrouded in mist.
Focusing intently on Jiang Tong’s movements, as soon as the spoon drew near her lips, she obediently parted her red lips slightly: “Ah—”
With gentle motions, Jiang Tong delivered the porridge into her mouth.
Xie Weiyi chewed and swallowed slowly, her gaze never leaving Jiang Tong’s face throughout the process.
“Delicious,” Xie Weiyi swallowed the porridge, tilting her head as she spoke in that direct tone unique to her drunken state, “the one Tongtong feeds me is extra sweet. I like you so much.”
Flustered, Jiang Tong averted her gaze, not daring to look into those overly mesmerizing eyes of Xie Weiyi’s any longer.
“Still want some?” she asked in a small voice.
“Still want some!” Xie Weiyi answered briskly, rubbing her head against Jiang Tong’s shoulder to find a more comfortable position.
Jiang Tong’s heartbeat was hammering wildly. Lowering her head, she scooped up the peeled prawn.
“Mmph… so good… love Tongtong…” This feeding required a large bite, and Xie Weiyi chewed with difficulty. The prawn meat filled her mouth, causing her words to become extremely indistinct.
The moment she swallowed, Jiang Tong fed her the next bite. Unable to spare any more time for acting spoiled, Xie Weiyi had to protest while chewing: “Mmph mph mph…”
Nodding, Jiang Tong teased her: “I know it’s good. I’ll dish you another bowl when you finish this one.”
Xie Weiyi: “???”
Today’s recording was announced as concluded amidst a pleasant dinner atmosphere, and Xie Weiyi’s bowl of seafood porridge had bottomed out.
“Captain, are you alright?” Yu Ningzhi’s voice drifted over from the side.
Captain?
Jiang Tong lowered her bowl of porridge and turned her head to look.
Sure enough, although Yu Ningzhi’s mouth was addressing Xie Weiyi, her gaze was fixed right on her.
Yu Ningzhi must have heard her and Xie Weiyi’s conversation tonight and rushed over to assert her territory.
After all, Yu Ningzhi was Xie Weiyi’s official partner from the group.
Still immersed in Jiang Tong’s tender embrace, Xie Weiyi was hit with an abrupt wave of irritation upon hearing herself addressed so casually as “Captain.”
Having no intention of paying attention to Yu Ningzhi, she didn’t even turn her head.
Reaching out, she hugged Jiang Tong’s arm tighter, continuing to indulge herself under the guise of drunkenness.
“Tongtong, were you calling me?” She let out a vague inquiry from the back of her throat, sounding aggrieved and bewildered.
Jiang Tong drew a soft breath, suppressing that untimely flutter in her chest. Raising her eyes to meet Yu Ningzhi’s hostile gaze, she knew the sweet dream was time to wake up from.
“Senior Xie, you’ve had too much to drink. Get up; the recording is finished, and it’s time to go back and rest.” Jiang Tong’s voice turned flat and calm, whereupon she shifted backward slightly and helped Xie Weiyi sit upright.
Seeing Jiang Tong distancing herself from her, Xie Weiyi’s eye rims turned red as she felt most of one side of her body chilled by the sea breeze.
Deeply reluctant to part with Jiang Tong’s scent and warmth, she frowned and leaned back, the tone of her voice unexpectedly carrying a hint of a sob when she spoke again: “You want to leave me again.”
Yu Ningzhi could tell that Xie Weiyi’s grievance was genuine.
Filled with resentment inside, but constrained by Xie Weiyi’s presence, she found it hard to throw a tantrum and could only bite her lip to hold it back.
Noticing the wrong atmosphere among the three of them, Su Leli stepped in to rescue the situation.
“Sorry, Aine acts like this whenever she drinks.” Su Leli covered up the secret of Xie Weiyi’s improved alcohol tolerance, reaching out to yank Xie Weiyi over before resting Xie Weiyi’s arm across her own shoulder.
As she steadied her to stand up, Su Leli covertly pinched Xie Weiyi’s arm, signaling her to quit while she was ahead.
“Oh, Li.” True to form, Xie Weiyi sought immediate revenge on the spot, cupping Su Leli’s face and letting out a loud hiccup.
Covering her nose, Su Leli wailed: “Xie Weiyi, I’m going to kill you!”
Catching sight of Yu Ningzhi staring at Jiang Tong with extreme hostility and knowing she intended to look for trouble with Jiang Tong, Xie Weiyi smiled and draped her arm over Yu Ningzhi’s shoulder: “Ningzhi, come on, let’s go back and rest.”
Overjoyed that Xie Weiyi had taken the initiative to draw close to her, Yu Ningzhi agreed repeatedly: “Okay!”
She and Su Leli propped up the “heavily drunk and unresponsive” Xie Weiyi, coaxing her as they walked toward their lodgings.
Jiang Tong stood up and followed behind the three of them.
Trotting over, Xia Yuan handed her a denim jacket: “Sister Jiang Tong, the night wind is chilly. Here’s a jacket for you.”
“Thank you.” Jiang Tong accepted it after expressing her gratitude, not declining.
Pointing in the direction of Yu Ningzhi and the others, Xia Yuan lowered her voice and said, “She’s been staring at you all night. The way she rushed over after the recording finished looked like she wanted to eat you alive!”
Looking from Yu Ningzhi to Jiang Tong, Xia Yuan asked curiously, “Is there… some bad blood between you two?”
“No. Even if there was, I wouldn’t remember it,” Jiang Tong shook her head.
Xia Yuan sighed: “Alas, who knows if your amnesia will ever recover? It’s such a hindrance.”
Jiang Tong smiled and teased her: “Is it hindering you from eating melons (gossip)?”
“Of course not.” Xia Yuan rubbed her chin shyly.
Remembering that Xia Yuan’s seat tonight had been closer to her and Xie Weiyi, Jiang Tong asked, “Did you hear my conversation with Xie Weiyi tonight, Xia Yuan?”
“Didn’t hear a thing. I only saw Aine putting food on your plate and you feeding Aine porridge. You two were just surrounded by pink bubbles the whole time,” Xia Yuan pouted.
If Xia Yuan, who was seated closer, hadn’t heard anything, how on earth did Yu Ningzhi manage to hear it?
This was undoubtedly too bizarre.
Flipping through her pockets and having Xia Yuan check her clothes, Jiang Tong found nothing out of the ordinary.
Therefore, she quickened her pace, intending to check on the situation over at Xie Weiyi’s side: “Xia Yuan, let’s hurry back.”
Inside Xie Weiyi’s room, she and Su Leli sat cross-legged on the floor, staring in large-eyed disbelief at the miniature listening device placed on the bed.
This was what Su Leli had found tucked behind the back collar of Xie Weiyi’s clothes.
Typing a message into her notes app, Su Leli handed it to Xie Weiyi: [It’s Yu Ningzhi.]
[Right after I helped carry you back to lie on the bed, I saw her touching your collar, so I sent her away.]
Xie Weiyi frowned.
[No wonder she knew about the conversation between me and Jiang Tong.]
Realizing that everything from tonight had been eavesdropped on by Yu Ningzhi, a chill ran through Xie Weiyi’s heart.
Knock, knock—
The door was knocked.
“Sister Leli, I brought the water over,” Yu Ningzhi’s sweet voice drifted through the door panel.
Nodding at Su Leli, Xie Weiyi lay back down on the bed to fake sleep.
After sticking the listening device back to its original spot, Su Leli went to open the door for Yu Ningzhi.
“Thanks, Ningzhi.” Accepting the water glass, Su Leli walked over to the vanity table, pulled a hangover-cure tea from her bag, and brewed it in the hot water.
Through the mirror on the vanity table, one could see Su Leli watching as Yu Ningzhi removed the listening device and brought the glass of water over to the bed.
“Ningzhi, you’ve worked hard all day. Go back and rest; I’ll wait here until Aine finishes her hangover tea before I head back,” Su Leli smiled as she ushered her out.
Just as she was seeing Yu Ningzhi out the door, Jiang Tong happened to be walking up to knock.
The three of them crossed paths right there.
Glancing at Yu Ningzhi and fearing she might give Jiang Tong a hard time, Su Leli smiled and invited Jiang Tong inside to sit: “Teacher Jiang, I saw that rattan weaving you did today was quite interesting. Care to chat with me about the creativity behind it?”
Seeming not to expect Su Leli to invite her proactively, Jiang Tong paused for a moment: “A-alright.”
Once inside, Jiang Tong went straight to the point: “Can I check Xie Weiyi’s pockets?”
Approaching her with a smile at the corners of her lips, Su Leli shook her head: “She and I are only friends; I don’t have the right to grant or deny permission on her behalf.”
With that, Su Leli leaned down close to Jiang Tong’s ear and continued softly: “Compared to me, perhaps… you’re closer to her?”