Although she really wanted to tease Rong Guang a little longer, Chu Feiliang knew she couldn’t actually push her too far.
Besides, even though Rong Guang hadn’t said anything, Chu Feiliang could easily guess from the way her blinks had slowed considerably after she finished eating that Rong Guang was probably exhausted.
Rong Guang thought for a moment, gently rubbing her brow bone with her index finger. She took a second to compose herself and managed to muster a bit of energy to ask, “How should I beg?”
Her voice was a little soft, carrying the unique, mellow quality that comes with overwhelming sleepiness.
Then Rong Guang paused and said in a small voice, “Can we do it another day? I don’t really have the strength to beg you right now.”
Hearing this, Chu Feiliang felt a tickle of amusement.
What kind of strength did one need to beg?
Just what was she thinking?
A smile played on Chu Feiliang’s lips. She watched Rong Guang meticulously washing her hands under the faucet and found herself at a loss. She pulled out two paper towels for her and said with a slight sigh, “Since you don’t know how to beg for now, you can just owe me.”
Rong Guang dazedly looked at the paper towels in her hand, then splashed a little more water, dabbing it lightly on her eyelids. She forced herself to stay awake and said, “Okay.”
At times like this, Rong Guang really seemed… especially easy to bully.
Chu Feiliang narrowed her eyes and said, “Time for bed?”
“Okay.” Rong Guang nodded, dragging her somewhat heavy feet upstairs with Chu Feiliang.
Having eaten instant noodles that night, she inevitably had to brush her teeth and wash up again. After finishing all that, Rong Guang felt like she had sleepwalked to bed. Aside from instinct, she had almost no conscious thought left.
Chu Feiliang lay in bed, waiting quietly for a moment.
After a while, she looked at the night outside the window and called out softly, “Guangguang?”
Rong Guang struggled to move. She didn’t have the energy to make a sound, only nuzzling against the pillow.
Chu Feiliang’s lips curved into a smile. She said, “I can’t sleep. I’m not used to this bed. I have insomnia.”
Rong Guang struggled to furrow her brow, still not opening her eyes.
Chu Feiliang let out a slow sigh, crossed one foot over the other, and then swung it leisurely.
In the darkness, her voice was much lower, as if afraid she might accidentally wake Chacha and Grandma sleeping in the bedroom downstairs.
“You know I have a Labrador at home, right?” Chu Feiliang said softly.
Rong Guang gave a small nod.
Chu Feiliang smiled. She stretched out an arm, reaching over Rong Guang’s head to rest it on the bed. She said with a sigh, “He usually sleeps in the crook of my shoulder. Without that little bit of weight, I really can’t fall asleep.”
This time, Rong Guang didn’t react.
Chu Feiliang tilted her head to look at her, cleared her throat, and finally said in a low voice, “Teacher Rong, please help me out. I have an interview tomorrow, and not being able to sleep will really affect…”
A fluffy little head nuzzled its way into Chu Feiliang’s arms.
The familiar scent of shower gel washed over her, and Chu Feiliang couldn’t stop the corners of her lips from curving upwards.
She gently placed a hand on Rong Guang’s shoulder, feeling her steady, deep breaths, and finally, slowly closed her own eyes.
So soft, and so warm.
It was incredibly comfortable to hold her on such a cold winter day.
Chu Feiliang got up so early the next day that when Rong Guang woke up, she couldn’t find any trace of her in the house.
She sat on the bed, taking a while to come to her senses. She checked her phone, then got out of bed, clutching her slightly dizzy head.
It was 9:40 in the morning, not too early and not too late.
Chu Feiliang’s interview today started around nine, so she probably had to arrive more than an hour early for makeup and preparations. Rong Guang rubbed her temples and happened to see her grandma busy in the kitchen.
She was startled and quickly bounded down the stairs in a few steps, saying, “Grandma, what are you doing up so early?”
Xu Mingli had gone to bed very late last night. Instead of sleeping in, she was now bustling about in the kitchen.
Xu Mingli, unfazed, raised the bowl and chopsticks in her hand and said with a grin, “Washing the dishes. Hurry and eat. After you’re done, Grandma will cook with you.”
Rong Guang froze, her face flushing a little.
She had almost forgotten… her grandma knew she liked Chu Feiliang.
Last night, Xu Mingli hadn’t been in a good state and had barely interacted properly with Chu Feiliang. This morning…
Rong Guang paused and asked, “You’ve met Teacher Chu?”
Xu Mingli glanced at her, then said chidingly, “Why do you switch to calling her Teacher Chu as soon as she’s not around? That Tiantian told me you call her ‘Sister’ this and ‘Sister’ that on set, sweet as can be. Let me think, I remember when you were little, there was a boy who insisted you call him ‘big brother,’ saying he’d bully you if you didn’t. In the end, you pinned his head down and beat him up for miles without letting go…”
The more Xu Mingli spoke, the lower Rong Guang’s head sank. Finally, Rong Guang couldn’t take it anymore and begged with a beet-red face, “Grandma, please stop…”
Xu Mingli stopped with a grin, indicating she wouldn’t say any more.
After a moment, Xu Mingli took the opportunity to prod Rong Guang, saying, “From what Grandma can see, she seems to be interested in you too. She was so light-footed this morning…”
Rong Guang’s face reddened at these words. She thought for a moment, then said, “Grandma, please don’t say things like that again.”
In any case, success or failure, she would know… after the farewell stage at the end of the month.
Rong Guang had already thought it through, what she would do if she were rejected this time.
The result was obvious.
Worst comes to worst, she’d just be shameless.
Anyway, she was under Big Dipper now, lured in step by step by Chu Feiliang—Chu Siyue had even personally signed her. There was no way Chu Feiliang could escape.
Rong Guang gritted her teeth and couldn’t help but think: Worst comes to worst, I’ll really be shameless. Who’s afraid of whom!
What Rong Guang hadn’t expected was that after helping her prepare a table full of dishes, her grandma and Chacha had… held hands and slipped away.
Slipped away.
It was quite a clever move.
Rong Guang looked at the sticky note on the door, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Neither the old nor the young had rigid personalities. Otherwise, her grandma wouldn’t have done something like chasing her mother down several streets with a large broom when she was young. So when it came to sneaking away, they truly felt no psychological burden.
Rong Guang called both of them, but their phones were turned off. She had no idea where the grandmother and granddaughter duo planned to run off to.
With no news at all, Rong Guang waited in the house for a while before giving up.
Before leaving in the morning, Chu Feiliang had sent her a message saying she could be back before two in the afternoon and would deliberately keep her stomach empty, waiting to eat the grand meal she was preparing for lunch.
Rong Guang made twelve dishes in total, but the portions weren’t large. Each dish could be finished in a few bites. She added two small bowls of fragrant rice, a normal amount that the two of them could have finished together in their past life.
When Chu Feiliang returned, wrapped in a heavy down cape, the first thing she smelled was the aroma of food filling the entire house.
She had been starving for a while. The moment she stepped inside and felt the warm air hit her, she took off her coat and darted straight into the bathroom to wash her hands.
Rong Guang timely handed her a set of loungewear from behind. Chu Feiliang turned to look, chuckled, and said, “How thoughtful.”
Rong Guang’s eyes curved. She consciously pulled the door shut and sat outside, touching the plates. The heating was on, and the food was still piping hot. Chu Feiliang had returned at just the right time.
Just as Chu Feiliang finished changing and came out, Rong Guang happened to open the door for Wang Lujie.
The moment Wang Lujie entered, she sniffed the air and subconsciously asked, “What’s that smell? It’s so fragrant—Xiao Rong, you’re here just in time. Xiao Chu hasn’t eaten much all day. You should persuade her to eat more later…”
Her words came to a very strange halt when she saw Chu Feiliang already seated at the dining table.
Not only did she stop talking, but she also finally let out a burp that had been stuck in her throat for a long time.
Rong Guang paused, subconsciously glancing at Wang Lujie’s stomach. Her jacket was unzipped, revealing a very form-fitting black sweater underneath. Because Wang Lujie was relaxed in the house, she wasn’t sucking in her stomach, which now looked… like a rubber ball.
It was obvious she was very full.
Wang Lujie’s lips trembled. She pointed a shaky arm at the lavish spread of twelve dishes and one soup on the table and said, choking back sobs, “Are you even human…”
Chu Feiliang turned a deaf ear. She picked up a slice of braised pork with preserved vegetables and placed it on top of her rice, then added two green beans, sticking them in upright. Then she turned her head, gestured towards Wang Lujie, and said, “Come eat with us.”
Rong Guang raised an eyebrow—so generous?
As expected, Wang Lujie burst into tears. She grabbed Rong Guang’s arm and, under Rong Guang’s limpid gaze, cried out as if weeping blood, “Can you believe it? On the way back, because she was afraid I’d fight her for food, she insisted on ordering a meal for two and literally forced me to eat it… hic!”
Rong Guang paused, a conflicted look on her face. “Do you need me to get you some digestive tablets?”
Wang Lujie was finally defeated. Clutching her stomach, she collapsed onto the sofa, weakly raising a hand. “I do.”
So Rong Guang scurried off like a little hamster to find the digestive tablets.
Chacha’s stomach wasn’t great either, so these things were always kept in the house. But because of the instant noodles yesterday, she specifically checked to make sure they weren’t expired before giving them to Wang Lujie. She popped out three tablets for her and said, “If you’re not feeling well, you can go lie down upstairs for a bit. The beds are all clean.”
Wang Lujie looked touched and was about to say there was no need, that she could just make do downstairs.
But then Chu Feiliang said coldly from the dining room, “Can’t you read between the lines? We’re eating down here, and you staying there will disrupt our conversation. So…”
Wang Lujie fell silent.
She angrily stuffed all three digestive tablets into her mouth at once, as if she were trying to bite off a piece of Chu Feiliang’s flesh. Chewing viciously, she stomped upstairs in a rage!
Rong Guang returned to her seat, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She looked at Chu Feiliang’s delicate face and asked, “Will it be okay for you to treat Lulu like that?”
“It’s fine.” Chu Feiliang shrugged. “We’re used to teasing each other.”
Rong Guang had seen how she and Wang Lujie teased each other before. No one took this kind of playful bickering seriously. Recalling Wang Lujie’s expression just now, Rong Guang couldn’t help but smile and say, “If Lulu hadn’t been so stuffed, she probably would have kept bickering with you for a while longer…”
“She deserved it.” Chu Feiliang’s eyelid twitched as she said expressionlessly, “On the way back, I ordered a small pastry to bring for you. She thought I was going to eat it, and even though she was about to throw up from lunch, she still forced it down.”
Rong Guang hadn’t known about that part.
Then she thought about Wang Lujie’s appearance just now and said, hesitating, “Well…”
“Go ahead and laugh if you want to.” Chu Feiliang picked up a shrimp and looked at it from side to side for a long time.
Rong Guang looked up. Seeing her just holding the shrimp without eating it, she couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
Chu Feiliang was quiet for a moment.
Then she held up her chopsticks, placed her hand in front of Rong Guang, and said, “You might not believe this.”
A question mark slowly formed above Rong Guang’s head. “Hm?”
“While fighting with Lulu over the cake, I got my finger caught in the car door.” The chopsticks in Chu Feiliang’s hand loosened and fell onto the plate with a crisp clatter.
Rong Guang paused. “…”
Chu Feiliang looked up without a change in expression and said, “My hand hurts. I can’t hold my chopsticks, and I can’t peel shrimp.”
Rong Guang: “…”
What was that saying again?
The heart of Chu Feiliang—
Rong Guang knew.
Chu Feiliang used to do this often.
To get out of doing chores.
It wasn’t that she did nothing at all. It was just that when she did do chores, she preferred to do the easy but tedious tasks that Rong Guang disliked the most.
For example, if her hand was injured and she couldn’t sweep or mop, she could tidy up the messy table and organize the equally chaotic drawers.
After she was done tidying, Rong Guang would naturally be responsible for wiping everything down.
The division of labor was reasonable and particularly balanced.
Rong Guang knew her routine by heart, but every time, she couldn’t help but wonder if Chu Feiliang did it on purpose?
Did she know that Rong Guang wasn’t particularly patient and hated tidying up small, fragmented things, so she would deliberately get injured or find an excuse, leaving the more consolidated tasks for herself?
—Of course, feeding her was an exception.
Rong Guang looked with a blushing face at Chu Feiliang, who was sitting on the high stool with her legs crossed, and said with curved eyes, “Your hand got caught in the door, so you can’t even hold a spoon?”
Chu Feiliang glanced at her and replied with a particularly prim nasal sound, “Mm-hm.”
Rong Guang was helpless. She wasn’t as thick-skinned as Chu Feiliang, so she could only resign herself to her fate, picking up the soup bowl and taking care of her as if she were a small child.
After managing to feed her a few spoonfuls, Chu Feiliang suddenly stopped opening her mouth.
Rong Guang froze, looked at the fish soup in the spoon to make sure there were no bones, then scooped up another spoonful and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Chu Feiliang glanced at her again.
This glance held a hint of scrutiny that Rong Guang couldn’t quite decipher.
After a moment, Chu Feiliang seemed to feel she could test the waters a little further. She said slowly, “It’s a bit hot.”
Rong Guang couldn’t help but look at her own hand, which was in direct contact with the bottom of the bowl, and then fell silent. “…”
Chu Feiliang continued to push her luck, nudging Rong Guang’s knee with her own. “Blow on it for me.”
Rong Guang had to practically suck in her cheeks to suppress the laugh that was about to burst out. After a long moment, she finally blew on the spoon, raised it again, and said, “Try it. This should be okay now, right?”
Chu Feiliang gave a prim nod, smacked her lips, and said, “Mm, the temperature is just right after you blew on it. Not too hot, not too cold.”
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Chu Feiliang instantly uncrossed her legs and sat primly in her chair. She casually swept the large pile of shrimp shells from Rong Guang’s side into the trash can below and started eating by herself. Her hand no longer hurt, her back no longer ached, and her tongue was no longer scalded.
Rong Guang was dumbfounded by this series of movements, which could only be described as smooth as flowing water. However, the doorbell didn’t give her any more time to think about anything else.
She stood up, and as she went to open the door, she couldn’t help but look back. She just felt that this version of Chu Feiliang… was actually a little awkwardly cute.
She opened the door with curved eyes, only to find it wasn’t her grandma or Chacha standing outside.
It was three people she hadn’t expected at all.
Duan Nong, Tang Shi, and Yi Chun.
The three of them stood neatly at the door, each wearing simple yet exquisite everyday makeup. Rong Guang was stunned for a moment. She wasn’t surprised they knew where she lived, but she was a little surprised by the purpose of their visit.
After all, the timing was too coincidental.
Chen Changping had just been arrested, and news came this morning that Cai Xiang and several other company executives had been found to have joint liability and were taken away from the company this morning.
Even Rong Guang didn’t know any more than that.
Wang Lujie hadn’t come back from the interview with Chu Feiliang today either; she had come from the police station, as there were follow-up matters to attend to.
Rong Guang paused and said, “You’re here to see me… Is something wrong?”
The three of them looked at each other.
What was rather surprising was that this time, it wasn’t Duan Nong who spoke first, but Yi Chun.
Rong Guang’s attitude toward Yi Chun wasn’t actually very good.
She couldn’t be called a bad person, but she had a sharp tongue, liked to gossip behind people’s backs, and was quite utilitarian.
The latter wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if a person’s utilitarianism was too strong, to the point of seeming to curry favor with the powerful and look down on the weak, it could make people very uncomfortable.
Yi Chun said, “We didn’t come here for any other reason today. We just wanted to tell you that no matter what your grievances with the company are, the farewell performance at the end of the month is, after all, the last public stage for the four of us together. We hope you’ll take it seriously and not drag everyone down.”
Rong Guang smiled. “Okay.”
She had thought it was something serious.
It was just to tell her to practice hard, yet they made it seem like such a big deal.
Duan Nong frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with Yi Chun’s words. She couldn’t help but glare at her and say, “What nonsense are you talking?”
She had let Yi Chun speak in the first place because she was worried she herself would say something to piss Rong Guang off again. She had just managed to coax Rong Guang into being willing to talk to her again. If Yi Chun’s words made Rong Guang unwilling to even visit her mother, who could she complain to?!
“Guangguang.” Duan Nong couldn’t hold it in anymore. She pushed the other two behind her, and as she spoke, she had already squeezed one foot into the house.
But what reached her even faster than her own voice was the aroma of food from the room.
It was almost three o’clock, time for afternoon tea.
Duan Nong’s eyes lit up. She had been worrying about how to find an excuse to stay, and this was the perfect opportunity.
She instantly squeezed her whole body inside and said, “Did you cook? I heard you brought your grandma over, and she wanted to see us too—Why is she here?!”
Duan Nong was halfway through her sentence when she saw Chu Feiliang inside, who had reverted to her carefree posture, with her feet propped up on two separate chairs, eating in a very unladylike manner. She said this almost through gritted teeth.
Chu Feiliang was leisurely forking the peeled shrimp Rong Guang had prepared for her from the plate.
Seeing Duan Nong question her, Chu Feiliang slowly turned in her chair, waved the fork in her hand without looking at Duan Nong, and said, “The shrimp is all gone. Peel a few more for me, would you?”
Rong Guang weighed her options.
Should she placate the three at the door, or the one inside.
She then decisively opened the door wider and said, “You guys should come in first.”
The three of them entered the house one after another. Rong Guang sat back down and buried her head in peeling shrimp shells for Chu Feiliang.
Chu Feiliang looked at the table.
Then she reached out, straightened the plates, and said magnanimously, appearing especially sincere, “Have you guys eaten? If not, why don’t you sit down and have a bite?”
Tang Shi had been rather quiet; she had a calm personality.
Yi Chun was a bit awkward and fidgety. She hadn’t expected the person inside to be Chu Feiliang. Didn’t that mean she had heard everything she said at the door?
Each had their own thoughts, but Chu Feiliang naturally became the center of the conversation, and everyone followed her lead.
Duan Nong didn’t dare to shout. She was afraid of making Rong Guang angry and also afraid Chu Feiliang would beat her up, ruining her image in front of her teammates. After considering for a long moment, she pinched her nose, sat down at the table, and said, “I’ll eat!”
After speaking, she looked down at the bare plates and fell silent.
“What do you expect me to eat?” Duan Nong looked at the table. There wasn’t even a spare pair of chopsticks.
Chu Feiliang grinned, using her own chopsticks to poke around a plate. “Here, onions. See? Several slices. Rong Guang spent a long time looking for them for me just now.”
Rong Guang covered her face—she had spent a long time looking for them for Chu Feiliang.
After all that searching, Chu Feiliang didn’t want to eat them, so she had picked them out and set them aside.
But Duan Nong didn’t know that.
She licked her lips, probably truly hungry. She looked around, not being picky, and grabbed the half-bowl of rice and chopsticks in front of Rong Guang. She shoveled a few mouthfuls into her mouth and, while chewing, looked at Rong Guang and said indistinctly, “You still haven’t told me, why is she here?!”
Her words, both spoken and unspoken, showed she intended to completely ignore Chu Feiliang.
Chu Feiliang raised her eyebrows, twirling a chopstick in one hand. Her expression was a half-smile, as if she could smell some kind of gunpowder spreading in the air.
Get instant access to all chapters now.
