Chi Yang’s face flushed red with stifled embarrassment.
She guiltily stole a glance at Xie Youci, worried that he might say something to the others.
But Xie Youci appeared utterly nonchalant.
He still leaned lazily against the sofa, his slender fingers holding a wine glass, occasionally swirling the precious Bordeaux red wine inside. “Didn’t you also say it was a rumor?”
Chi Yang’s expression visibly faltered.
Her confusion spilled out, “A rumor?”
Xie Youci slowly lifted his gaze to meet hers, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. He tilted his chin back, taking a sip of the wine in his hand, but his eyes never left her.
Jiang Li turned to look at Chi Yang.
“Right, isn’t it a rumor?”
“That news looked fake at first glance. Sure, Yangyang does have a bad drinking habit—she gets handsy every time she’s drunk—but with Xie Youci? Impossible! Who’d believe that?”
“Do you believe it?” Jiang Li asked Ji Fengting.
Ji Fengting scoffed disdainfully, “I’d sooner believe pigs could fly or that the sky would rain pies.”
“Exactly!”
Xue Rang nodded in agreement. “But the photo was Photoshopped pretty convincingly. They even added the mole on the knuckle of Chi Xiaoyang’s left pinky!”
Chi Yang: “…”
She had thought the media had embarrassed her in front of her friends, but she never expected things to take this turn.
“So, it really didn’t happen, right?”
The three of them turned their gazes toward the two involved parties, as if they needed to hear it from their own mouths to be reassured.
Chi Yang pretended to sip her tea calmly. “Of course! My preferences are normal. I wouldn’t marry a dog.”
Xie Youci also swirled his wine glass with a cold, indifferent smirk. “Who in their right mind would think I’m interested in Miss Chi?”
Xue Rang and the other two burst into laughter and mockery. “We knew the media these days have no conscience, always spreading baseless rumors!”
“Spreading lies to deceive people!”
“Spreading falsehoods!”
“With malicious intent!”
“Unforgivable by heaven!”
Everyone chimed in, firmly convinced it was all media fabrication. No one noticed the subtle exchanges between the two involved parties, and the questioning about the bite mark on the clavicle was inexplicably brushed aside.
The conversation at the table shifted to other topics.
Xue Rang insisted on dragging Xie Youci into a game of Texas Hold’em, betting with drinks, and the more he lost, the more enthusiastic he became.
Later, however, he ended up vomiting uncontrollably, staggering around the private room with a bottle in hand. “Dead leaf butterflies! Brother Ci, let’s chase dead leaf butterflies together, insignificant as we are!”
Ji Fengting’s head was about to explode from the noise.
Seeing Xue Rang about to lunge at Xie Youci, he quickly grabbed him and covered his mouth.
“Brother Ci, please forgive him. Xue Rang’s been like this lately. Let’s hang out again next time. I’ll take him away now.”
With that, Ji Fengting dragged him out.
Xie Youci said nothing.
Although he had barely lost all night, he had still drunk quite a bit during casual conversations, so he got up to step outside for a smoke and some fresh air.
Little did he know.
Tonight, besides Xue Rang, someone else was drunk.
Chi Yang.
Her alcohol tolerance had never been great—at most, she could handle two glasses of low-to-mid-strength cocktails. Tonight, taking advantage of no one paying attention and fueled by guilt and nervousness, she had drunk a bit too much.
Chi Yang cupped her cheeks with both hands.
Her fair skin was tinged with a beautiful flush of pink. Shedding her usual arrogance and smugness, she looked surprisingly docile.
Her gaze followed Xie Youci.Watching his broad shoulders and narrow waist as he stood up and walked out, Chi Yang’s eyes, tinged with a seductive peach hue, curved slightly. She lifted her face with a sweet, tipsy smile, “Hehe… It’s you again, Mr. Abs~”
Then she set down her glass and got up.
Under the dim, suggestive lighting of the private room, she slipped out after him like a little kitten.
Jiang Li was also a bit drunk.
She lay sprawled on the sofa, hugging a soft pillow, and lifted her dazed, intoxicated eyes, “Huh? Where’s Yangyang?”
…
Night had fallen.
The moon and the dazzling cityscape illuminated the bar’s high-altitude terrace through the 360-degree transparent glass walls, creating an exceptionally atmospheric glow.
Today, the bar’s terrace was closed to walk-in guests.
No one was around.
Xie Youci stood beside the butterfly-shaped lantern suspended in the air, taking out a cigarette and placing it between his lips.
He lowered his head, raising a hand to shield the flame.
Perhaps to catch a breath of fresh air, his collar was left even more open, and his sleeves were rolled up to his arms, revealing the smooth, taut lines of his muscles.
“Click—”
The lighter’s wheel slid, and a small flame flickered to life.
Xie Youci leaned his head down again to light the cigarette, but suddenly heard the unsteady click of high heels behind him.
He tilted his head, the cigarette still between his lips.
The flame hadn’t yet gone out.
Beside the flickering light stood a slender figure in dark green. Chi Yang clung to a pink-and-white lamp post, the glow masking the flush of intoxication already coloring her cheeks.
“Chi Yang?”
Xie Youci narrowed his eyes, watching her. He pinched the cigarette between two fingers, removed it, and turned his wrist to place it back into the cigarette case. “You came out for some air too? Ready to go home?”
Chi Yang blinked obediently.
She shook her head.
Xie Youci hadn’t yet noticed anything unusual about her, so he raised a casual eyebrow. “Back to the marital home, then?”
Chi Yang tilted her head. “To sleep with you?”
Xie Youci let out a light, amused scoff, perfectly at ease. “No.”
He lazily turned his head, perhaps intentionally, letting the bite mark on his collarbone catch the light again. “I’m afraid a little puppy might attack and take advantage of me again.”
“Anyway, two bedrooms have been prepared at Xizi Bay. You can choose whichever one you like to sleep in.”
Xie Youci thought he had considered everything thoroughly.
After all, he and Chi Yang had been at odds since childhood. Even with a marriage certificate, reconciliation wouldn’t come easily. Sharing a bed was nothing short of a fantasy—
Oh, that night three days ago was an accident.
It wouldn’t happen again.
But despite all his calculations, Xie Youci never expected Chi Yang to shake her head, refusing outright.
She even lifted her face proudly. “That won’t do. I won’t choose. How about this—whichever room lets me use your abs as a pillow, that’s the room we’ll sleep in tonight!”
Xie Youci: …?
“We?”
He lowered his head, a complex expression in his eyes, and studied her for a long time with his dark gaze. “Chi Yang.”
The bar’s terrace was so quiet you could hear breathing.
Xie Youci leaned lazily against the glass wall. After a long moment, he slowly adjusted his posture and drawled, “You’re really perverted.”
Chi Yang neither confirmed nor denied the assessment.
Xie Youci let out a soft hiss. “How come I never noticed before—are you an ab-obsessed personality? Do you have an abdominal fetish?”
Chi Yang continued blinking obediently.
Her slightly intoxicated eyes were like plum blossom petals touched by the first melting snow at dawn—pink and dewy.
“That might be true…”
She pressed a fingertip to her cheek, lost in drunken contemplation, then suddenly looked up and mysteriously beckoned Xie Youci with a finger. “Hey, Mr. Abs.”Xie Youci: ?
Why this embarrassing nickname again.
“Come a bit closer,” she said.
Xie Youci leaned against the glass wall, hesitating, an ominous premonition rising in his heart.
Chi Yang licked her lips. “Come here and I’ll tell you—I actually have many more perverse preferences.”
Xie Youci: “…”
He straightened his posture slowly and hesitantly, observing Chi Yang as he took steps toward her.
Thanks to the lighting,
Xie Youci didn’t notice Chi Yang was drunk.
He only thought this little dog was acting strange tonight. Originally, he intended to get closer to see if she had drunk too much or if she had been mentally stimulated after getting their marriage certificate.
But what Xie Youci didn’t expect was—
The moment he stood still in front of Chi Yang, she let go of the lamppost and suddenly jumped onto him!
“Chi Yang!”
Xie Youci’s expression changed abruptly. Instinctively, he reached out and grasped her lower back. Unprepared for her impact, he staggered backward.
Then, before he could regain his composure, Chi Yang wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed toward his ear!