Chapter 81

Chapter 81

A dozen or so minutes later, Xie Qiyan and Jiang Baichuan arrived at Yese KTV and found the right private room. The moment Jiang Baichuan pushed open the heavy metal door from outside and heard the deep, slow singing within, he froze slightly.

Xie Qiyan, meanwhile, walked straight toward Xia Wanzhi, who was curled up on the sofa.

It was precisely because Xia Wanzhi knew Xie Qiyan was coming to pick her up that she had put down her juice and picked up a cocktail later, clinking glasses with Yun Li.

Yun Li was drinking to drown her sorrows. Just sitting there doing nothing had made Xia Wanzhi feel awful too.

“Xie Qiyan? You’re here-” Xia Wanzhi had not drunk much and was still somewhat clear-headed. When Xie Qiyan held her shoulders and helped her sit up, she glanced toward the door and saw Jiang Baichuan staring fixedly at Yun Li.

No one knew if some hidden switch in her had suddenly been flipped, but Xia Wanzhi pushed Xie Qiyan away, sprang to her feet with a thump, and charged straight toward Jiang Baichuan.

Jiang Baichuan was startled by Xia Wanzhi’s sudden, aggressive momentum. She grabbed his arms hard, and he could not simply shake her off, so he said tactfully, “Wanzi, you’ve got the wrong person. Your boyfriend is over there.”

With a solemn face, Xia Wanzhi shook her head. “I don’t have the wrong person.”

Her throat tightened. Xia Wanzhi asked him bluntly, “You like Yun Li, don’t you? You really like her, don’t you? You’ll make her happy, won’t you?”

As she kept asking, her eyes stung, and the tears followed, uselessly spilling down. Xia Wanzhi lifted a hand and wiped them away messily, then said to Jiang Baichuan, “Please save Yun Li. I… I want to help her, but I don’t know how. You…”

“Help me help her…” Xia Wanzhi choked out, unable to explain herself clearly for the moment.

Jiang Baichuan stilled. His heart ached along with hers. He lifted his eyes and looked at Yun Li from a distance, lonely and helpless in that moment, and his voice sank. “I know. I will.”

It sounded both like a promise and a decision. “I definitely will.”

A pair of warm hands settled on Xia Wanzhi’s shoulders. She turned back on instinct and met Xie Qiyan’s pitch-black eyes.

“Leave it to him.” Xie Qiyan held her bag in one hand and raised the other to wipe away her tears. “Let’s go home first.”

Once Xie Qiyan and Xia Wanzhi left, the singing in the private room stopped as well. Drunk, Yun Li’s eyes looked a little hollow. She stared dazedly at Jiang Baichuan as he walked toward her, step by step.

“Jiang Baichuan?” After drinking so much and singing so many songs, Yun Li’s voice was a little hoarse, very soft and gentle, drifting thread by thread into Jiang Baichuan’s ears.

It stirred his heart.

Jiang Baichuan stopped in front of her and let out an exasperated laugh. “Not bad. You can still recognize me-”

“Bastard-”

Yun Li raised her voice over him, completely drowning out the rest of his words.

Jiang Baichuan, inexplicably cursed, did not get angry. He lowered his eyes and stared straight into her hazy gaze, his thoughts tangled.

As if he had hesitated for a long time, he finally lifted his hand carefully, slowly and tentatively reaching toward the corner of her eye. When he saw she was not struggling, he dared to use the pad of his finger to wipe away the tear still clinging there, not yet dry.

His palm cupped half her cheek, his movement so gentle it was as if he were holding a priceless treasure.

Yun Li was truly drunk. Even though she knew this person was Jiang Baichuan, she still chose to lower her guard and tilt her head, resting her face completely in his palm.

Or perhaps it was precisely because she knew this person was Jiang Baichuan that, taking advantage of her drunkenness, she dared to behave so recklessly.

Jiang Baichuan’s eyes flickered, and his movements stiffened. He sighed helplessly. “Miss Yun, why are you cursing me for no reason?”

Yun Li’s brain had a poor signal. Only after a long while did she stagger to her feet. Jiang Baichuan caught her, but she immediately shook off his hand. “Because you’re too casual.”

Jiang Baichuan loosely held an arm around her and took the microphone from her hand, putting it away. Seeing that she was about to crash into the wall with absolutely no sense of direction, he pulled her straight back into his arms.

With no balance at all, Yun Li turned and fell directly into Jiang Baichuan’s embrace.

As if she had struck his heart, Jiang Baichuan’s breath caught. His heartbeat seemed to skip a beat.

Yun Li’s face hurt from bumping into him, but she had lost the ability to think. She burrowed wherever it felt comfortable, wrapping both arms around his waist and pressing the full weight of her body against him.

Jiang Baichuan finally managed to recover a sliver of reason and asked in a low voice, “How am I casual? I’m not taking the blame for something I didn’t do.”

Having found a comfortable position, Yun Li closed her eyes to rest and could not be bothered to speak again. She gave a lazy little hum and completely shut down.

Jiang Baichuan laughed despite himself. After taking a moment to calm down, he kept that same posture and backed toward the sofa.

For every step he took back, Yun Li followed one step forward.

Jiang Baichuan could not put his current feelings into words. He crouched slightly and picked up Yun Li’s phone from the sofa, but accidentally lit up the screen.

WeChat notifications were not hidden on the device. The message Liang Jing had sent lay there plainly on the lock screen.

Jiang Baichuan’s eyes darkened, and the hostility around him was hard to conceal.

Before leaving, he swept his gaze around to make sure nothing had been left behind. Then Jiang Baichuan bent down, forcefully scooped Yun Li up in his arms, and carried her out of the private room. After breathing the fresh air outside, Yun Li seemed to sober up a little. Her two slender arms hooked around Jiang Baichuan’s neck as she stared straight at him with her round eyes.

“Awake? If you’re awake, let go. I’ll take you home.” Jiang Baichuan opened the passenger door and placed her inside, but Yun Li’s arms were locked tightly around him, refusing to release him.

Jiang Baichuan bent at the waist, half his body leaning into the passenger seat, and remained deadlocked with Yun Li in that posture for a long time.

“Yun Li, let go.” Jiang Baichuan coaxed her patiently.

Yun Li did not speak. She only shook her head sluggishly.

From the time they had met until now, Yun Li had never once looked him in the eye. But now, she stared into his eyes without looking away. Jiang Baichuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and for a moment, he almost could not withstand it.

The two of them were far too close. Yun Li smelled entirely of alcohol, her hot breath spilling against the side of his face. Jiang Baichuan’s breathing deepened as he threatened her in the gentlest tone possible, “You know full well I like you, yet you still dare to look at me like this.”

“Yun Li, if you don’t let go, I won’t be able to stop myself from kissing you.”

He really would.

He would not be able to stop himself from kissing her.