When she realized what Fu Minglin was tugging at, Nan Zhi’s face instantly flushed red.
The already uncomfortable tightness was magnified infinitely at that moment.
Yet, rather than physical discomfort, the surging wave of shame welling up from deep within her heart nearly drowned Nan Zhi.
“Answer me.”
Fu Minglin’s face had already gone completely cold, and her hand wickedly pulled upward.
The already ill-fitting restriction began to slip away bit by bit.
“Mm—”
That old, worn-out strap was stretched to its absolute limit, and the polyester fibers, unable to take the strain, began to emit faint, snapping sounds.
Realizing something was slipping downward, Nan Zhi instinctively raised a hand to cover herself, but before her hand could move, it was swatted away.
Fu Minglin had reached out a step ahead of her.
Through the linen fabric, the young woman’s tender, youthful body fell into her control.
Nan Zhi was both ashamed and embarrassed.
Her lips were clamped tightly between her teeth, struggling back and forth, but she couldn’t squeeze out a single syllable.
She knew how to endure hardship. Even during her most pride-conscious adolescence, she could drop her ego to go door-to-door selling products, never fearing humiliation or arguing with crowds over a mere thirty or fifty cents.
That did not mean she lacked a sense of shame.
Especially not in front of the person before her.
With a face flushed red from holding her breath, Nan Zhi shook her head weakly, her fox-like eyes brimming with forced tears: “Don’t…”
Don’t bully me like this.
Yet, stubbornly, Fu Minglin showed no reaction.
Her attitude remained cold, her brows carrying a trace of seriousness. The long fingers that had cupped underneath were now drawn inward, like a strict pastry chef inspecting whether an upcoming batch of dough had reached the proper softness.
“What age did you start wearing this?” Fu Minglin’s mind was truly free of distracting thoughts, her expression somewhat stern. “You don’t even know if it fits?”
The unclasped strap had long since lost count of how many years it had been washed.
This cheap chest wrap was a children’s size, yet it appeared on the body of an already developed adult girl.
And it looked as though it had been worn for more than a year.
Receiving no reply, Fu Minglin wickedly gathered the strength in her hand.
As an orthopaedic surgeon who might stand through surgeries lasting a dozen hours, she paid special attention to physical fitness, making the strength in her arms and waist exceptionally formidable.
Fu Minglin could clearly sense the person before her gradually failing to withstand the force.
This place was fragile, and those fox-like eyes were already swimming with tears.
Large, heavy droplets rolled down her cheeks, sinking through the clothing fabric and blooming across the back of Fu Minglin’s hand.
Red bloodshot veins slowly spread across the whites of her tear-wrapped eyes.
This vicious, wanton desire to torment pleased Fu Minglin, prompting her to release her grip.
“What are you crying for?”
The fingertips that hadn’t left became gentle, accompanied by a teasing tone: “As if I were bullying you.”
Even so, Fu Minglin’s hand did not stop moving.
Her knuckles gripped.
Loosened.
Then gripped again.
Like a jellyfish roaming the deep sea, launching a siege on its prey.
Sensing the increasingly obvious trembling of the person beneath her, the smile in the depths of Fu Minglin’s eyes grew even more intense.
The thumb that had been pressing down nearby lifted lightly.
Wickedly pressing right across the raised bud.
In an instant, Nan Zhi was struck as if by lightning, trembling as she curled inward and backed away.
The palm emptied out, but Fu Minglin was not annoyed.
This was her first outward display of emotion since entering the lounge.
Lifting her head, the trembling, curled-up Nan Zhi saw those two canine teeth through her tears.
Fu Minglin smiled.
Her hand remained unwithdrawn from its previous position.
Nan Zhi struggled to keep up with her sudden emotional shifts, the shame and embarrassment that had just been intertwined in her heart unexpectedly pulsing with excitement within that smile.
Fortunately, Fu Minglin did not press her further.
The hand that had been suspended in the air reached over, using the shirt to help her restore the displaced fabric, and finally, strictly buttoned the shirt all the way to the top.
The departing fingertips brushed lightly across her skin.
The next instant, the smile stiffened on her lips as Nan Zhi abruptly clamped her thighs together.
That inspection just now had, bizarrely, stirred up emotions deep within her body.
An unspeakable feeling of hollowness was sliding downward from her lower abdomen.
It was as if a fire had been lit.
Yet what fell down instead was a sticky wetness.
Frightened by this reaction, Nan Zhi bit her lip even tighter, guiltily glancing at Fu Minglin, who had already walked away to wash her hands.
They stayed in the laboratory until dinner time.
Fu Ci did not seem surprised that Nan Zhi was also in the lab; the phone call came right on schedule, and the car was already waiting at the entrance.
After washing her hands and returning, Fu Minglin’s attitude suddenly turned aloof.
She stared intently at her tablet, seemingly dealing with some documents and data.
As for Nan Zhi, she had yet to escape the emotions of moments before; she pressed her school bag against her legs, clumsily attempting to conceal herself.
In front of the driver and housekeeper, the two of them remained as unfamiliar with each other as usual.
No one knew what had just transpired.
They dined upon returning home, and after her bath, a bedtime cup of milk accompanied by new clothes was delivered with a knock at her door. For Nan Zhi, who usually slept soundly, it was her first time experiencing insomnia.
When she woke up the next morning, Fu Minglin was already gone from the dining table.
Not only that, but for the next few days, Nan Zhi did not see her again.
Life seemed to return to its ordinary routine.
Nan Zhi went to school after breakfast and was picked up to return home at dinnertime.
The tail end of summer vanished in the blink of an eye.
Nan Zhi completed the bar exam and smoothly prepared for the next stage of her graduate school admissions.
Another weekend, she finally saw Fu Minglin.
However, it wasn’t at home, but at a golf course; she had been picked up by the driver not long after arriving at school.
Upon getting into the car, she saw Fu Minglin sitting in the back row.
She was wearing sportswear today.
Her long hair was tied back, and a minimalist, refreshing soft-mist pink made her complexion appear even fairer. Even with her cold face, she was inexplicably given a touch of compassion by the red mole between her brows.
“Your clothes are in the back,” Fu Ci said coldly, emotionless. “We are entertaining guests tonight, you are not to follow your sister around again.”
Hearing her mother’s command, Nan Zhi froze for a few seconds, neither nodding nor replying.
Yet Fu Ci did not care about an answer.
Because what she gave was always a command, never a negotiation.
Nan Zhi cautiously sat down in the seat beside Fu Minglin, gently raising her eyes to look at her.
Eight days.
One hundred and ninety-nine hours.
Fu Minglin had not returned home, and there was a hint of exhaustion between her brows, her pupils covered in mottled bloodshot veins.
It looked as though she hadn’t rested for a long time.
Silently hugging her school bag tighter, Nan Zhi wanted to pull her earphones out of her pocket, but the memory of that morning in the lounge involuntarily resurfaced in her mind.
For some reason, after just a few days apart, the distance between herself and Fu Minglin that had been bridged by the earphones seemed to have grown unfamiliar once more.
The car was very quiet.
Added to the presence of Fu Ci, the atmosphere became exceptionally suffocating.
Just as they were getting out of the car, Nan Zhi picked up the pile of clothes.
In the same style as Fu Minglin’s but a different shade of light sky blue, she was surprised to find that mixed in among the sportswear was an extra garment.
It was an extremely soft white—the color of the dresses Fu Minglin frequently wore.
Her thoughts were dragged back to that morning.
Her face flushed bright red.
Stealthily, Nan Zhi glanced around. Fu Minglin and Fu Ci had already gotten out of the car. Bending down like a thief, she wrapped the pile of clothes inside her outerwear.
The destination was an expansive, fifteen-hundred-square-meter open golf course.
To cope with sudden weather changes, individual private rooms and lounges were set up on both sides, and every visible spot on the field was blanketed in green.
Prior to these past nineteen years, Nan Zhi had only ever picked up golf balls here, and only that once.
Because the caddy positions were few and the requirements high.
Even a part-time job picking up balls required graduation from a prestigious top-tier university, accompanied by appearance standards as well.
Nan Zhi had earned two thousand back then, running across the fifteen-hundred-square-meter field like a dog until she was utterly exhausted, and had never managed to snatch the opportunity since.
When she came out after changing her clothes, Fu Ci was already conversing with someone.
The newcomer was a woman of about fifty, whose appearance—especially that pair of eyes—was an absolute spitting image of Gu Shixu.
Nan Zhi’s heart skipped a beat.
As she drew closer, she indeed heard Fu Ci address the other party as Boss Gu.
Gu Shixu’s mother.
Nan Zhi’s defensive posture instantly bristled, and she looked around, but failed to catch sight of Gu Shixu anywhere.
Neither did she see Fu Minglin.
Fu Ci’s warning earlier had blown away like a passing breeze.
Choosing not to step forward to greet them, Nan Zhi walked toward the edge of the course instead.
This course was the most expensive address in Jiangcheng, offering a vast field of vision, and even the air tasted of money.
Yet Nan Zhi was in no mood to appreciate it.
Passing a few teeing grounds, she finally caught sight of a pair of figures far in the distance.
Fu Minglin was practicing her swing, while Gu Shixu stood by the neighboring teeing ground.
The atmosphere between the two of them seemed exceptionally pleasant as they chatted and laughed, especially Gu Shixu, whose cheeks were flushed and whose gaze kept drifting.
Standing in place, Nan Zhi let her hands drop, the excitement that had just flared up fading away entirely.
“This must be President Fu’s other daughter!” A hearty laugh rang out from behind her—it was Boss Gu.
Fu Ci’s gaze swept over indifferently; the straight-backed figure with her ponytail tied up indeed possessed a hint of her own youthful bravura between the brows, so she nodded. “My youngest daughter.”
“I haven’t seen her before,” Gu Zheng said with full praise. “I must say, this youngest daughter looks even more like you.”
Her voice carried, and everyone around could hear.
Nan Zhi’s spine suddenly stiffened. She distinctly felt a gaze fall upon her.
Without outsiders present, Fu Ci wasn’t quite as cold. She gave Nan Zhi a look, then smiled and reached out. “Boss Gu, come and take the first shot.”
No sooner had her voice fallen than the caddy trailing by her side immediately ran over to set up the club and ball.
The topic was smoothly diverted just like that.
With the adults starting their business game, Fu Minglin busy accompanying Gu Shixu, everyone had already teed off.
Left with no choice where she stood, Nan Zhi had to bite the bullet and walk over to the other side of the teeing ground, given Fu Ci’s look from earlier.
She did not know how to play golf.
Nor did she understand the joy of swinging such a club; holding that heavy bat-like thing, weren’t they afraid of hurting their backs with such a heavy sweep?
Just as she was weighing the club in her hand, she heard a resounding cry of “Good shot!” from Gu Mo nearby.
Fu Ci swung her opening shot—an albatross—and the crowd broke out into cheers.
A look of expression finally appeared on that iceberg face. Fu Ci generously produced cash to tip the caddy who had retrieved the ball for her.
“With President Fu’s exceptional golf skills,” Gu Zheng’s voice drifted over, “Fu’s two daughters mustn’t drop the ball.”
The pressure instantly shifted onto Nan Zhi.
She swallowed, gripped the shaft of her club tighter—she couldn’t just stand there daydreaming, could she? Damn it, isn’t it just swinging outward? What’s there to be afraid of?
She built up enough psychological construction for herself.
Resigning herself to fate, Nan Zhi closed her eyes and swung—and, unsurprisingly, missed the ball entirely.
The caddy ran quite a distance away to retrieve it.
The previously celebratory atmosphere turned somewhat awkward.
Fu Ci’s face darkened instantly, while Gu Zheng let out a couple of ha-has, steering the conversation back.
Even though she had mentally prepared herself, throwing such a massive public face still left Nan Zhi feeling rather embarrassed.
Once the caddy brought the club back, no one paid any more attention to her.
Feeling rather uncomfortable yet unable to leave, Nan Zhi could sense that a gaze was still lingering on her flank. Trapped in place, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and brew herself up for a second public humiliation.
Just as she prepared to swing again, a body heat suddenly pressed up against her from behind.
“You can’t swing with such a large arc,” came Fu Minglin’s voice, very gentle. “You’ll strain your waist.”
Her hot breath accompanied those words, sparking a riot within Nan Zhi’s heart.
Her hand gripping the club trembled, and the next second, it was enveloped.
Fu Minglin, having approached at some unknown moment, was now embracing her from behind, coming to rescue her right after she had made a fool of herself.
While things like this had happened occasionally over the past year, it was the first time the two of them had pressed this close.
Fu Ci was right over there.
Remembering that warning, and recalling the instance when they were caught by Gu Shixu last time, Nan Zhi’s heart felt like it was frying in oil, her focus long since drifting to the ends of the earth.
On one hand, she felt timid; on the other, she couldn’t bear to let go.
She hadn’t seen Fu Minglin in eight days. Her reason clamored for her, making her yearn to press even closer, yet those intermittent glances sweeping over kept her from daring to cross the line.
“What is it?” Fu Minglin, however, didn’t care at all. Her right hand tightly wrapped around Nan Zhi’s hands, while her left hand began to wander.
Her fingertip brushed against the fabric of the sportswear, sliding upward, as her pinky wickedly hooked the edge of the inner garment: “Does it fit? It should be measured quite accurately.”
Measured accurately…
Those few short words summoned back Nan Zhi’s memories. Though days had passed, her body miraculously produced a reaction all over again.
It felt as though Fu Minglin’s hand had landed on her once more.
Both shy and timid, Nan Zhi tilted her head slightly, wanting to tell Fu Minglin to stop.
This wasn’t a confined space; Fu Ci was right beside them.
If they were caught—
It would ruin Fu Minglin.
Yet Nan Zhi did not know that by turning her head this way, she was playing right into Fu Minglin’s hands.
As if anticipating it all along, the moment Nan Zhi raised her face, Fu Minglin lowered hers.
A dragonfly skimming the water—a kiss happened in a flash.
Nan Zhi was struck as if by lightning, her hands shaking on the club, nearly dropping it.
In a split second, needle-like gazes nailed into them.
Immediately following came Fu Ci’s questioning voice. “What are you two doing?”