“Huh? Little Pei, you’re out here to flip the switch too?” The older brother, spotting Pei Yanqiu, seemed to have found a kindred spirit. He slapped Pei Yanqiu’s shoulder heartily.
His gaze then swept past Pei Yanqiu and landed on Shen Xingyao, who was holding her phone behind him. Instantly, he flashed a sleazy grin that all men would understand.
“Oh, you two… also got interrupted? This damn electricity, really messing things up! Brother, tough break for you!”
Pei Yanqiu’s face flushed so red in the darkness it was practically dripping blood. He wished he could dig a three-bedroom apartment out of the corridor floor with his toes.
He stubbornly refused to look back or respond, fumbling to push the circuit breaker switch back up.
Click. The lights came on.
“Alright! You’re a real pal, brother! My wife’s waiting for me!” The older brother turned excitedly and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Waiting for you for what?
Brother!
Pei Yanqiu and Shen Xingyao walked back into their room in stiff, synchronized steps and locked the door behind them.
An awkward atmosphere filled the air, a feeling of social death.
They silently returned to the bedroom and lay back down.
That earlier enchanting, heart-fluttering atmosphere had completely vanished.
After all, who’d be in the mood after being yelled at by that older brother?
Shen Xingyao pulled the blanket up to cover half her face, thinking tonight was truly absurdity opening the door for absurdity’s mother—absurdity had come home.
However, this wasn’t the end of it.
The soundproofing in this old, dilapidated place could be said to deter gentlemen but not scoundrels.
They had barely lain down for two minutes when the sound of a bed frame violently shaking came from next door.
Creak, creak
Accompanying it were the older brother’s rough panting and the older sister-in-law’s unrestrained moans.
“Oh my~~ Oh my”
The sounds were so clear it was as if they were happening right beside their bed.
Shen Xingyao’s entire body stiffened like a plank.
She didn’t dare move a muscle, even her breathing became shallow, afraid that even turning over would make it seem like she was responding to the battle next door.
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, silently reciting the Great Compassion Mantra, the Heart-Clearing Mantra, and core socialist values in her mind…
I’m asleep, I’m already dead, I can’t hear anything!
Meanwhile, Pei Yanqiu, lying beside her, was suffering even more.
The fire he had just suppressed was being stirred up again by the live broadcast next door, showing signs of rekindling.
He gritted his teeth, his hands clenched into tight fists under the blanket, veins throbbing on his forehead.
By the faint light of the streetlamp filtering through the window, he turned his head to look at the woman lying stiff as a corpse beside him.
Her eyes were tightly shut, but her eyelashes were trembling wildly from nervousness. A suspicious blush spread across her fair face.
She was pretending to be asleep!
Pei Yanqiu felt a bit aggrieved. He said gloomily, “Can you hear it?”
Hear what?
I’m asleep, I can’t hear anything!
Shen Xingyao kept her eyes closed and didn’t move. As long as she didn’t move, she hadn’t heard anything.
She even deliberately started making soft snores, trying to fool Pei Yanqiu and get him to settle down.
But she never expected that the next second, her nose was pinched shut.
No one can seamlessly switch to mouth breathing when their nose is pinched, so Shen Xingyao had no choice but to slowly “wake up.”
She looked at Pei Yanqiu with bleary, sleepy eyes and said irritably, “What are you doing? It’s the middle of the night, why aren’t you sleeping?!”
“It’s too loud, I can’t sleep…” Pei Yanqiu’s tone held a hint of grievance.
Shen Xingyao was speechless. “It’s not that loud…”
Pei Yanqiu handed a pink phone to her: “Listen, is it ringing or not…”
Hiss~
Isn’t this her phone?
The vibration is really loud, huh~~
Shen Xingyao felt a bit embarrassed. Her attention had been entirely on the noises next door, and she hadn’t noticed her phone vibrating and dancing.
Taking it now and looking—her world collapsed!
It was a QQ voice call request from her in-game CP.
This was the usual time for their daily sweet Duo Queue sessions. It seemed he noticed she wasn’t online and came to call her.
Shen Xingyao fumbled nervously, trying to hang up, but accidentally pressed answer: “Hey~~ baby~~ why aren’t you online yet?”
Baby, baby, baby~
Who’s your baby?!
Shen Xingyao felt disgusted, almost nauseous. Turning her head, she saw Pei Yanqiu’s resentful gaze and hurriedly replied: “Not playing anymore, not playing anymore, I won’t play ever again!”
After saying that, she decisively ended the call and quickly tapped her fingers, adding the person’s QQ to the blacklist.
She smiled awkwardly, trying to placate the resentful man before her: “Hehe~~ I forgot to blacklist his QQ during the day, my mistake~~”
Mainly, she hadn’t even remembered during the day that she still had this person’s contact info, so she hadn’t thought much about it.
Pei Yanqiu, however, was quite magnanimous: “I don’t have time to play with you either, so it’s normal for you to find someone to carry you. Why did you blacklist him for no reason?”
That’s what he said, but could you at least control the corners of your mouth?
He already had naturally smiling lips, but now they were practically stretched to his ears. And he’s asking why I blacklisted him for no reason?
Shen Xingyao couldn’t be bothered to expose him and changed the subject: “Ah, I wasn’t really in the mood to play games anyway. It’s both expensive and boring.”
Oh, right, the ten thousand yuan she just got today—half of it was already spent.
She really was broke now.
Pei Yanqiu frowned and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go borrow some more from friends in the next few days. I won’t let you run out of money.”
How could Shen Xingyao let him keep borrowing money? That would mean owing favors, and they weren’t at that point yet.
She remembered the money the caregiver had returned: “You don’t need to borrow. I forgot to tell you—I asked that caregiver to refund half a month’s salary, so we have another ten thousand yuan.”
She said this animatedly, happily waiting for him to praise her.
But Pei Yanqiu was surprised: “Refund half a month’s salary? Shouldn’t that be fifteen thousand? I paid her thirty thousand a month?!”
She was a top-tier caregiver. Back when he had money, he hired the best.
Shen Xingyao was so angry she nearly fainted: “Damn! I got scammed!”
She had assumed too much. Remembering from the book that Pei Yanqiu later hired a caregiver for twenty thousand, she thought this one was the same.
No wonder the caregiver refunded the money so readily, without any haggling or bargaining—she had already made an extra five thousand off her!
Just—so infuriating!
Pei Yanqiu quickly comforted her: “It’s fine, it’s fine. Getting ten thousand back is already really good.”
This was his sincere thought, because if it were him or his mother, they probably wouldn’t have gotten a single cent back.
That made sense, but Shen Xingyao still felt terribly wronged.
“Mhm,” Shen Xingyao half-heartedly accepted the comfort, but she had already noted this caregiver down in her little mental notebook.
She was petty. She held grudges!
After the two of them talked for a while, the commotion next door had already stopped.
So fast!
Now it was finally quiet, and they could get a good night’s sleep.
However, before she could put down her phone, that annoying vibration sound rang out again.
Shen Xingyao took a closer look—this time it was a WeChat voice call.
But this time, there was a note attached, reading “Tigress Agent.”
It seemed to be work-related, so she quickly answered.
Before she could even greet the caller, the other end fired off a rapid barrage: “Be at the company tomorrow at nine in the morning. If you’re late, you can pack your things and get out!”