“Achoo.” Hit by a cold wind, Mu Xuefei shivered and instinctively tossed and turned, unable to hold back a sneeze. Fumbling around blindly for a blanket and coming up empty, she blinked sleepily, her head feeling as heavy as lead.
Noticing the television was still playing, she finally remembered that she had intended to wait up for Yun Yongjun last night, only to fall asleep in the middle of the night. Catching a cold after spending the night in the cold draft seemed inevitable.
“Achoo.” Sneezing yet again, she hurried to her room to throw on a cardigan, grabbed a hot towel from the bathroom, and took a hot bath before she felt fully awake.
After getting herself sorted out, Mu Xuefei pulled out her phone, only to find the screen completely black. No matter how many buttons she pressed, there was no response. She realized the battery had died and quickly plugged it into the charger.
Once the phone powered back on, she hurriedly pressed the power button, only to be startled by dozens of missed calls and a dozen text messages.
2-21 22:23 “I’m not coming back tonight, go to sleep first.”
2-21 22:30 “Asleep yet? Remember to sleep early, why aren’t you answering the phone?”
2-21 22:31 “Are you mad or is your phone out of battery? Remember to sleep early, don’t stay up late.”
……
The phone calls had also started past ten last night, coming almost every few minutes until past eleven, after which the logs stopped.
Looking at the text messages, Mu Xuefei chuckled, feeling foolish for overthinking and waiting up for nothing last night.
Sneezing once more, she quickly tapped on a missed call and dialed back.
“Hello, who is this?” The other end answered promptly, but it wasn’t Yun Yongjun’s voice.
Mu Xuefei glanced at the number on the screen, confirming she hadn’t dialed the wrong person. Tightening her grip on the phone, she spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, “I’m looking for Yun Yongjun.”
“You mean Yongjun?” The woman on the other end hesitated for a moment before speaking again, “She’s busy right now, taking a shower. If it’s urgent, I can pass a message along for you.”
Mu Xuefei pressed her lips tightly together, feeling a sharp pang of pain in her chest. Before she could reply, she heard Yun Yongjun’s voice drift over, accompanied by the sound of running water.
“Sister Axi, whose call is it?”
“Beep beep beep beep—” Mu Xuefei subconsciously hit hang up. Staring at the number she had long memorized by heart, she abruptly threw the phone onto the bed and hurried into the bathroom.
Splashing cold water on her face, she finally felt herself calm down a little.
When she came back out, her phone was vibrating. Picking it up, she saw the contact name read “Yun Yongjun.” After a brief hesitation, she pressed answer.
“Hello?”
“Feifei, are you looking for me? Were you okay last night? You kept not answering my calls and didn’t reply to my texts.”
Sensing the grievance in Yun Yongjun’s tone, Mu Xuefei paused before answering, “My phone ran out of battery last night. I only just noticed and charged it before calling you.”
“Ah, I figured as much. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have ignored me.”
Just as Mu Xuefei opened her mouth to speak, a groggy, muddled voice came from the other end: “Where did you put my clothes?”
Then Yun Yongjun’s helpless voice came across again: “Didn’t you throw them on my bed?”
Clothes? Bed?
Unwilling to listen any further, Mu Xuefei tried to hang up directly, but a thought crossed her mind: “Yongjun, are you free today? I don’t have any scenes, and I want to walk around H City.”
“Sorry, I might be a little busy today. If you want to go out for a stroll, should I find you a guide?”
“Never mind.” Mu Xuefei’s tone turned cold. Saying “Go ahead and get busy,” she hung up the phone.
On the other end, Yun Yongjun stared at the hung-up phone in confusion. Why did Mu Xuefei suddenly hang up?
“Er Ya, hurry up and bring my clothes in.”
Looking at the silhouette in the direction of the bathroom, Yun Yongjun fought down the urge to hit someone. “Next time you want to hide from Mom and Dad, please don’t come looking for me.”
“If I don’t look for you, who else?” Yun Xi walked out draped in a bathrobe, raising an eyebrow and sitting on the edge of the bed like a grand boss. “What, now you resent me for taking up the time you could spend with your wife? Tell me, what would Mom and Dad do if they found out about this?”
“Stop messing around for no reason.” Now that she had finally managed to make Mu Xuefei start to care, Yun Yongjun didn’t want to scare her off because of her family. She picked up her pajamas and threw them straight at the other person’s face. “Keep this up, and next time some guy comes looking for you, don’t ask me to bail you out.”
“We’ll talk about next time when it comes.”
Yun Yongjun sneered, half-narrowing her eyes at the unrepentant Yun Xi. “What do you want?”
“Aren’t you supposed to keep me company today? Let’s go shopping, to the biggest mall in H City.”
Giving the utterly shameless woman a cold glance, Yun Yongjun agreed, “Once we’re done shopping, pack up and get lost back home. Don’t be an eyesore.”
“Relax, relax. I certainly won’t get in the way of you chasing your wife.” Having achieved her desired result, Yun Xi flopped face-first onto Yun Yongjun’s bed, raising a hand to wave an OK sign.
Yun Yongjun sighed helplessly, then looked down at the hung-up call, a lingering sense of foreboding settling in her chest.
After hanging up, before Mu Xuefei even had time to process her thoughts, a stabbing pain flared up in her head—doubtlessly the result of staying up late and catching a cold from the wind last night.
Searching high and low through her suitcases yielded no medicine, leaving her with no choice but to contact hotel room service to ask someone to buy some. While waiting for the medicine, she stared blankly at the ceiling, forcing her mind not to think about Yun Yongjun and that “Sister Axi” who had spent the night with her.
After a few minutes, she took the medicine brought by the room service and drifted off into a groggy sleep. When she woke up again, her head felt slightly better, though her nose still felt stuffy and sore.
Checking the time, she saw it was already eleven o’clock, and her stomach, having had nothing all morning, began to rumble loudly.
Rubbing her temples in irritation, she glanced out at the blue sky outside, changed into casual clothes, and walked out of the hotel.
Since she was being ignored all day anyway, she didn’t want to stay cooped up in the hotel guessing at the relationship between Yun Yongjun and “Sister Axi,” nor did she want to speculate about what the two of them had done last night.
Hailing a taxi at random, Mu Xuefei realized she actually had nowhere in particular to go. Finally, the driver offered a suggestion: “If miss is bored, why not go shopping? My daughter loves going shopping whenever she has free time.”
Mu Xuefei looked up, glancing at the man in the driver’s seat through the rearview mirror, and nodded indifferently. “Let’s go then. Just drop me off somewhere nearby.”
“Alright, the biggest mall in H City is right nearby. It’ll only take ten minutes.”
“Thank you for the trouble.” After agreeing, Mu Xuefei had no desire to talk. Resting her chin in her hand, she watched the scenery slip backward past the window, her eyes unfocused as she drifted off into a daze.
Noticing this through the rearview mirror, the driver shook his head helplessly. These youngsters nowadays were always getting hurt over romance; this look was practically identical to his daughter’s state after a breakup.
“Miss? We’ve arrived.”
Called out to several times, Mu Xuefei finally snapped back to reality. She offered an apologetic smile and couldn’t help apologizing as she paid the fare, “Sorry, I was just lost in thought.”
“No worries.” While returning the change, the enthusiastic driver couldn’t help offering some advice, “Young couples just need to talk things out when they have a disagreement.”
Mu Xuefei was startled, quickly realizing the man had misunderstood, but it was awkward to explain, so she simply said she understood.
Realizing the situation wasn’t as simple as he thought, the uncle driver looked regretfully at the pretty young woman before him. Even good-looking people had their troubles, he thought—at least now he had a new story to tell about that daughter of his who always bragged that pretty people had no worries.
Watching the taxi speed away, Mu Xuefei shook her head with a faint, wry smile, though the tightness in her chest eased just a fraction.
Walking past the central fountain, Mu Xuefei looked up at the sweeping calligraphy of the words “Junxi Mall” overhead and stepped inside.
True to its reputation as the largest shopping center in H City, Mu Xuefei walked along and found that while the crowds weren’t quite shoulder-to-shoulder, they weren’t far off either. Considering it wasn’t even the weekend yet, the sheer number of people was astonishing.
Since she didn’t actually know what to shop for, Mu Xuefei wandered into almost every store she passed, browsing whenever something caught her eye, though she didn’t buy anything to keep her hands free.
After browsing an accessory boutique, Mu Xuefei casually stepped into a clothing store.
Declining assistance by saying she just wanted to look around on her own, Mu Xuefei began browsing with a serious expression. However, a moment later, when she lifted her head, she froze in place, instinctively retreating behind a rack of clothes.
“What do you think? This dress looks pretty good on me, right?”
Hearing that voice belonging to “Sister Axi,” Mu Xuefei cautiously peeked through the gaps. “Sister Axi” possessed striking, glamorous features with vaguely familiar facial contours. A long Victorian-style dress hugged her slim, curvaceous figure, lending an effortless grace to her every move.
“Not bad.” Hearing Yun Yongjun’s voice ring out, Mu Xuefei unconsciously clenched her teeth, her fingers gripping the clothing rack so tightly that the veins on the back of her hands bulged.
She cast another look at that “Sister Axi”—too thin, skin too fair, and features too arresting; women like that were bound to be restless at heart.
Watching the two of them chat as they walked away into the distance, Mu Xuefei finally loosened her grip.
“Miss, are you alright?”
Mu Xuefei turned her head to see a store clerk looking at her hand with a worried expression. Following the clerk’s gaze down, she realized her own nails had gouged bloody crescent marks into her palms.
“I’m fine.” Mu Xuefei forced a stiff smile and turned to walk out.
Looking out at the bustling, crowded mall, Mu Xuefei suddenly realized that in this entire world, she had no other acquaintances besides Yun Yongjun. Even Sister Chen had only been contacted two or three times. How utterly absurd was that?
“System, I suddenly want to go home.”
“Gurgle~”
Instead of a response from the system, her stomach gave a loud rumble of protest. Having no other choice, she found a nearby coffee shop and ordered a slice of cake.
Scooping up a bite of cake into her mouth, Mu Xuefei glanced listlessly around the room, only to see the two people she had just run into walking in, surrounded by a group of people.
Seriously… you just can’t get rid of them.
Her mood, which had briefly been soothed by the cake, twisted into a strange knot once again. Mu Xuefei felt the sweetness in her mouth turn completely tasteless.
Pushing her spoon aside, she rested her chin in her hand, staring blankly at the back of Yun Yongjun, who was chatting with someone nearby, wondering what she was even doing.
When she finally snapped out of it, the two figures were gone from the corner. Scanning the surroundings yielded no familiar sight, so she simply stood up to pay her bill, packed up a slice of cake to-go, and headed back to the hotel.
Stumbling back into her room in a daze, her phone suddenly buzzed with a notification.
“I might not be able to make it back tonight, get to sleep early. — By Yun Yongjun”
Mu Xuefei thought of that “Sister Axi,” then pictured their intimate behavior, completely unsure of what emotion she was feeling. In the end, she could only let out a silent sigh, placed the cake on the table, and walked into her bedroom, pulling the covers over herself in bed.
Before long, dark damp patches began to spread across the white pillowcase.