The entrance to the police station was silent. It was early morning, and there were few pedestrians or vehicles on the road.
Before getting out of the car, Chu Feiliang checked her appearance. After confirming everything was fine, she put on a mask and a hat.
After speaking with the person in charge on duty outside, the two of them smoothly entered the inner room.
The moment Rong Guang came out, the first person she saw was Chu Feiliang, who had rushed over.
She, her grandma, and the others had been in an office assisting with the investigation.
A few police officers were intently reviewing the surveillance footage from the hallway. Several neighbors who had volunteered to testify were sitting nearby. Since the hallway surveillance had audio, nothing could be hidden; it was all laid bare for everyone to see.
The neighbors were incredibly enthusiastic.
Tang Yuan, in the end, was very good at handling things.
It was hard to find a milk tea shop open at night. After a long search, she found a 24-hour bakery that had juice. Tang Yuan bought juice and some late-night snacks for the neighbors who came to testify, to give them something to eat, since everyone was staying up late with them.
This gesture received unanimous praise from all the neighbors. In no time, they had eaten everything and were sitting obediently in a row on the benches along the side, all waiting eagerly.
The officer in charge found it amusing. After taking their statements, he told the enthusiastic citizens to hurry home, as it was getting late. It was best if they could travel together.
So, as Tang Yuan and Rong Guang were seeing the people outside into a taxi, they happened to run into Chu Feiliang, who was just coming in.
Rong Guang froze.
She was the first to spot her.
“Sister!” Rong Guang couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. Seeing the mask and hat on Chu Feiliang’s face, she knew it wasn’t a good time for pleasantries. She said to her, “Can you wait for me inside? I’ll come in right after I see these neighbors off.”
Chu Feiliang was naturally willing.
It was much warmer inside the police station than outside, but she glanced around and said, “I’ll go with you.”
Rong Guang didn’t refuse, but she didn’t let Chu Feiliang get too involved either. She and Tang Yuan saw the neighbors into their taxis before turning back.
Wang Lujie had already gone to discuss the next steps with Tang Guoyi.
It was the middle of the night. The witness testimonies and the hallway surveillance footage were very clear and straightforward, so there was no reason to keep them any longer. The remaining matters would be handled by professionals.
But with the results from the lab, Chen Changping couldn’t leave; he had to be detained.
The person in charge from Star Cluster had been very arrogant at first, but ever since he learned that the lawyer who came was Tang Guoyi, his expression had turned strange.
It wasn’t until he recognized who the person who rushed over later was that he completely stopped talking.
This time, Star Cluster had probably really messed with the wrong people.
Who would have thought? Rong Guang’s next company wasn’t Universe Entertainment; she had leaped over the dragon gate and flown straight to Big Dipper.
What kind of benchmark was Big Dipper in the industry?
A key arts company supported by the state. How many national first-class actors did they have under them?
Any one of them was a figure who could make the entire circle tremble with a stomp of their foot.
Could Star Cluster withstand that?
Not at all.
The man’s expression changed several times. He glanced at the lifeless corridor leading to the detention rooms. There was a lot of dust in the corners. No matter how clean it was swept, the filth in those nooks and crannies couldn’t be dispelled.
I can’t stay at Star Cluster, he thought.
Chu Feiliang didn’t even spare a glance for the man in the corner.
She was looking at a message on her phone from Wang Lujie, which said the situation inside wasn’t difficult to handle and they could go home first if they were free.
Chu Feiliang showed the message to Rong Guang and asked, “Shall we go?”
Rong Guang nodded.
She looked at her grandma and Chacha with some worry, pursing her lips, her face showing a bit of displeasure. Her grandma was old and usually went to bed very early, sound asleep by eight or nine. Now it was the early hours of the morning, and her grandma’s eyes were red from staying up. Her eyes could barely stay open, yet she forced herself to stay awake here, afraid of missing the slightest bit of news.
As for Chacha, she was curled up asleep on a makeshift ‘bed’ made of two chairs pushed together, covered with Rong Guang’s down jacket. Her face was flushed from sleep, but she would often be startled awake when she turned over. She would have to sit up and look around for a while, confirming that Rong Guang was nearby, before she could lie down and go back to sleep.
Rong Guang pursed her lips.
She went over to wake Chacha up. She barely had to call a second time; the moment she said Chacha’s name, Chacha was startled awake.
Seeing Chacha’s expression, like a bird startled by the twang of a bow, Rong Guang felt a sting in her nose.
She stroked Chacha’s head. It was only that afternoon that she had learned Chacha had actually hidden a folding fruit knife in her clothes, protecting her grandma behind her the whole time.
Grandma only found out the little girl had hidden a knife when she tried to pry open Chacha’s hand.
She gently rubbed Chacha’s hand and said softly, “Good girl, we’re taking Grandma home now.”
“Okay.” Chacha was still groggy with sleep and not fully awake. Her small hand grabbed a wet wipe from the table, and not minding the cold, she unfolded it and wiped her face and neck vigorously.
With some moisture on her face, Chacha became a bit more alert. She didn’t pay much mind to her face being red from the rubbing, just scratched it casually, ruffled her messy hair, and then carefully, with Rong Guang, helped Grandma put on her clothes and get up from her seat.
A person in their sixties wasn’t completely incapable of staying up late.
But Xu Mingli’s routine was too regular. Plus, she had been frightened in the afternoon and was then semi-forced to stay up. Now that she knew everything was fine, her spirit relaxed, and her whole body couldn’t hold up anymore. Her steps were a bit unsteady, and she didn’t even have the strength to look at people.
Chu Feiliang didn’t say a word, silently helping Rong Guang carry the remaining things to the car.
After getting everyone into the car, Rong Guang turned back to look at the solitary Chu Feiliang and said, “Sister, you…”
“Me?” Chu Feiliang sighed, glanced inside, and said, “I’ll have to ask Teacher Rong for a favor, to take me in for a night. Lulu has to deal with things tonight and can’t go back, and Tang Yuan can’t get away either. It’s the middle of the night, I can’t drive while fatigued.”
Rong Guang’s eyes, glistening like water-washed grapes, looked at her darkly as she said, “Then if you don’t mind… would you be willing to… um, stay at my place for a night?”
“Of course, I’m willing.” Chu Feiliang’s eyes curved into a smile. “I couldn’t ask for more.”
Rong Guang wasn’t tired, but she could see the dark circles under Chu Feiliang’s eyes, a fatigue that even light makeup couldn’t hide. She said with a touch of heartache, “It’s almost an hour’s drive home. You should sleep in the car for a while.”
This time, Chu Feiliang didn’t refuse. After fastening her seatbelt, she leaned back against the seat and fell asleep almost instantly.
Only then did Rong Guang look at the people in the back seat, pursing her lips. Her disgust for Star Cluster rose to an unprecedented peak.
At this point, she didn’t need any more provocation; Rong Guang was already on the verge of a volcanic eruption at any moment.
She pursed her lips, holding it in, before closing all the windows and slowly starting the car and getting on the road.
Because of the addition of Chu Feiliang, the rooms had to be reassigned.
Chacha automatically assigned herself and Grandma to one room.
Xu Mingli truly had no strength left. The moment she got upstairs, she lay down on the soft bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Chacha had slept for a while and was now wide awake. She and Rong Guang changed Xu Mingli’s clothes and gave her hands and face a simple wipe.
Rong Guang let out a breath. She was also exhausted. She had been running around all day, her back and legs ached, and she just wanted to take a quick shower and go to bed.
“Goodnight, Sister Guangguang.” As Chacha saw Rong Guang out, her eyes flickered slightly. She said, “Before you go to sleep, can I ask you a little secret?”
How could Rong Guang refuse? She tapped Chacha’s nose, listened to the sound of the shower from upstairs, and said, “Go ahead.”
Chacha leaned close to Rong Guang’s ear and whispered, “At your confession stage at the end of the month, are you going to confess to Sister Chu? Are you going to do it publicly? The kind where you get down on one knee on stage and give her nine hundred and ninety-nine roses—”
“Of course not.” Rong Guang’s eyes curved, not at all surprised that Chacha could see through it.
She smiled and said, “Your Sister Chu and I aren’t together yet. I’m pursuing her, so I can’t put her in an awkward position. If she doesn’t want to be with me right now, and I make such a grand, presumptuous confession, it would be irresponsible to both of us.”
Besides, they were both public figures.
Let’s not even talk about Chu Feiliang.
Even Rong Guang herself was currently in the eye of the storm. The slightest disturbance could land her on the hot search list for days on end, not to mention adding Chu Feiliang to the mix.
She could already predict that if she went public, confessing in front of everyone during the final Farewell Stage, it would be almost no different from emotional blackmail.
What would she have Chu Feiliang do then?
Accept her, or reject her?
Whether she accepted or rejected, how would they get along afterward?
It would all be so awkward.
“Oh, right.” Chacha nodded a beat late, but the confusion on her face suddenly vanished.
She let out a sigh like a little adult and said, “I was just thinking, nine hundred and ninety-nine roses aren’t cheap. Where was I going to find a rose garden to pick so many for you?”
Rong Guang was silent for a moment.
After a while, she said, “I think you have a point.”
Chu Feiliang was actually someone who really liked a sense of ceremony, and she also loved flowers.
Rong Guang never opposed it; in fact, she strongly approved and was very willing to support these hobbies of Chu Feiliang’s.
But the problem was, the confession stage at the end of the month was in B City. So many media outlets would be gathered there, and Duan Nong’s family was heavily supporting the stage effects, practically throwing huge sums of money at it, so it was sure to be an unprecedented performance.
Besides, they were a girl group.
By the end of the month, all the flowers in the city would probably be booked up. Where would Rong Guang find flowers to give?
This was truly a… rather sudden, yet soul-piercing question.
Rong Guang was dumbfounded too.
Chacha had an expression of having seen through everything. She spread her hands and said, “See? Didn’t you adults even consider this?”
Rong Guang said speechlessly, “Isn’t this the first time ever…”
It was her first time confessing to someone; she really had no experience, after all.
She had never even confessed to someone while filming a drama; she was always the one being confessed to.
Her skills were rusty, and there was no one to practice with.
This was just fatal.
Chacha patted Rong Guang’s shoulder and said unhurriedly, “Don’t be afraid. You’re good-looking, so whatever you do is right. Sister Chu definitely won’t reject you then. I believe in you.”
Suddenly, the sound of a door opening came from upstairs, followed by Chu Feiliang’s lazy voice. “What won’t I reject?”
Rong Guang and Chacha looked up at the same time.
Chu Feiliang was wearing one of Rong Guang’s bathrobes and a shower cap, looking down leisurely. There were still water droplets on her neck that hadn’t been wiped dry.
Rong Guang’s eyesight was very good; she could even see those water droplets trickling down, gradually disappearing into the bathrobe, and finally vanishing.
Rong Guang couldn’t help but swallow.
She murmured, “N-nothing…”
Chacha blinked her eyes and, with great cleverness, called out, “Goodnight, Sister Chu!”
After saying that, Chacha mercilessly, right in front of Rong Guang, slowly closed the door with a ‘click!’.
Rong Guang: “…”
This little heartless thing, running away after setting her sister up.
She stood up under Chu Feiliang’s gaze and said, bracing herself, “N-nothing.”
“Then what was it about rejecting something?” Chu Feiliang raised an eyebrow, resting one hand on the railing.
Seeing she couldn’t avoid it, Rong Guang started spouting nonsense with a straight face. “It’s… Chacha was saying, what if my cooking is bad and you don’t want to eat it, but you can’t think of a way to refuse. I… I just said you wouldn’t refuse.”
“About that.” Chu Feiliang’s eyes curved into a smile. She suddenly asked, “Are you hungry?”
In the afternoon, she had gone to her own home with Tang Yuan, but she hadn’t eaten more than a few bites of pastry before rushing to the police station.
With so much happening in between, it was likely she hadn’t eaten anything.
Sure enough, Rong Guang shook her head and said listlessly, “I’m hungry.”
Chu Feiliang came downstairs and said, “It’s cleaned up upstairs, you go take a shower. I can use the kitchen, right?”
Rong Guang was taken aback and subconsciously asked, “Are you going to make something to eat? Why don’t we just order takeout? We can have it left downstairs, and I can go get it right after my shower.”
“No need.” Chu Feiliang had already entered the open-plan kitchen downstairs and opened the refrigerator to take a look.
Rong Guang seemed to take the matter of inviting her to dinner tomorrow very seriously. The refrigerator and the cabinets below were stocked with a lot of groceries.
So, after a very satisfied look around… Chu Feiliang took out a package of braised beef instant noodles from a corner.
She calmly grabbed four eggs and called leisurely up the stairs, “Don’t mind my cooking skills. As long as it’s better than what I make, I can eat it.”
After speaking, she grinned up the stairs and said, “I’m very easy to feed, not picky at all.”
Upstairs, Rong Guang tried to hold it in, finally sucking in her cheeks and nodding very seriously, but she still couldn’t help but laugh. “Then I’m truly relieved.”
Chu Feiliang not picky?
As if.
She had a whole basket of things she didn’t like to eat. Rong Guang could count them one by one on her fingers, and mentioning any of them would make Chu Feiliang’s expression change.
But although Chu Feiliang didn’t like to eat them, it wasn’t that she couldn’t eat them.
To say she was easy to feed wasn’t wrong either.
The more Rong Guang thought about it, the happier she felt. She even had a particularly wicked little thought—if she really put cilantro in all of Chu Feiliang’s dishes tomorrow, would Chu Feiliang eat it? Or eat it? Or… reject her?
But it wasn’t long before Rong Guang shook this terrible thought from her mind.
It was her first time hosting, after all. She should try her best to leave a good impression.
If she really gave Chu Feiliang a psychological scar, how would she ask her out for a second or third time?
They ate their late-night meal rather hastily. They didn’t have time to wash the bowls and chopsticks, mainly because neither of them wanted to move anymore, so they just poured in some dish soap and left them to soak in the sink.
Noodles made from soaking and noodles made from boiling have different textures.
Chu Feiliang didn’t cut any corners. She fried the eggs first before putting them in the pot to cook with the noodles. She cooked the two packets of noodles separately, with the same amount in each, so neither would eat more or less than the other.
Rong Guang didn’t realize how hungry she was until she started eating. She almost licked the bowl clean and still felt like she could eat more.
“So delicious.” Rong Guang’s mouth was covered in red oil from eating. She looked up at Chu Feiliang; neither of them was in a much better state.
Plus, both of them had their hair wrapped in ram’s horn towels. For a moment, Rong Guang actually felt as if they had… reunited with their past lives in some way.
Chu Feiliang smiled as she collected the bowls and chopsticks, placing them in the sink. “It’s because you were too hungry,” she said.
Rong Guang nodded. She knew she was hungry too.
After saying that, Chu Feiliang suddenly asked, “While we were eating just now, did you feel like the taste was a bit off?”
Rong Guang shook her head, her face full of confusion. “No, I thought it was delicious…? But I don’t know if it’s my imagination, it felt a little pasty.”
As she spoke, she herself became a little unsure.
Chu Feiliang said with a calm expression, “Those two packets of instant noodles, I dug them out from the corner of the cabinet. They were new, from a five-pack.”
Rong Guang was silent for a moment, then said, “Then Chacha and I probably put them there before we left.”
Chu Feiliang licked her lips, pressing on her own equally full stomach. “Do you remember when you bought those instant noodles?”
Rong Guang shook her head. “I don’t remember…”
The two looked at each other for a moment.
Then, they both stood up from the sofa at the same time and went into the kitchen with nervous expressions.
Rong Guang unhesitatingly squatted in front of the trash can, took out the garbage bag without any concern for the dirt, and looked for a long time, but couldn’t find the production date.
Chu Feiliang looked at her, the corner of her mouth twitching, her smile almost impossible to hide. “Why are you digging through the trash?”
“Looking for the production date on the package…” Rong Guang clutched her stomach.
She didn’t know if it was because she was too full. She hadn’t felt it while sitting, but now that she was standing, her stomach felt a bit too bloated.
After looking for a long time without finding the production date, she couldn’t help but mutter, “I’m doomed, I can’t remember when I bought it either…”
“I found it.” Chu Feiliang held up the outer packaging from the cabinet and said, “It’s probably… not expired.”
The package didn’t have a production date printed on it, only the shelf life and expiration date. It expired on December 27th.
There were still more than ten days until the end of the month.
Rong Guang paused, then calmly threw the trash back into the trash can, got up, washed her hands, and said, “I knew it. How could something like instant noodles expire?”
“But its shelf life is only six months.” Chu Feiliang placed the remaining three packets on the counter, leaned against the cabinet to look at them, and asked, “Are we keeping these?”
Just as one problem was solved, Chu Feiliang immediately threw out an even more fatal one.
Rong Guang looked conflicted and said tremblingly, “Keep… keep them, right? They haven’t expired yet…?”
“Then what’s next?” Chu Feiliang pointed upstairs. “A minor who is still growing, and an elderly person who needs nutrition. Between these two, you plan to feed them to who?”
“I’ll eat them myself?” Rong Guang said, sounding unsure herself. Her hand-washing movements slowed down involuntarily. She thought pitifully for a moment and struggled to ask, “Exactly how many days are left…?”
“About a week.” Chu Feiliang chuckled lightly, picked up the nearby hand soap, squeezed a little onto Rong Guang’s hand, her eyes curving with an expression of someone enjoying a good show. “I remember you said before that you can eat instant noodles at most twice a week. The third time makes you want to throw up.”
Rong Guang slowly nodded.
Chu Feiliang smiled wickedly, seeming to have completely grasped Rong Guang’s little quirks in handling certain things. She spread her hands, clearly enjoying Rong Guang’s current distress over not wanting to throw them away but not knowing how to deal with them. “Well, either you finish these three packets within a week—you probably can’t eat them tomorrow, since you’re treating me to a meal.”
Rong Guang nodded, her eyes unconsciously holding a hint of expectation, hoping Chu Feiliang could give her some advice.
Chu Feiliang cleared her throat. Her hand also had some soap on it, so she simply stuck it under the faucet to wash along, saying, “Or… you could just throw them away.”
Hearing this, Rong Guang’s face indeed scrunched up like a little bun.
She was a very frugal person, especially disliking wasting food.
Moreover, the noodles hadn’t expired, so she would feel very guilty throwing them away.
The meal she was treating Chu Feiliang to tomorrow would definitely be the kind with many dishes but small portions. Each dish would probably be controlled to just a few bites, enough to be finished in at most one more meal, to avoid waste.
Now, being asked to throw away something that hadn’t expired, she was definitely reluctant.
Seeing this, Chu Feiliang finally bent down, leaned in a little closer, and said with a low, smiling voice, “Of course, there is another way.”
Rong Guang looked up at her, her voice sounding soft and sticky as she whispered, “What is it?”
Chu Feiliang’s lips curved up. One hand was in her bathrobe pocket, the other, still wet, was propped on the black marble countertop. She tapped her index finger lightly, making it look even more delicate and fair, and said cheerfully, “Beg me.”
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