“All right. Chai, your foot’s in no shape for standing—better not sit too long. That’s enough for today. I’m off. Drink up if you want; this one’s on me. Again—bye!”
Yuan Meng didn’t want to argue anymore. The more she talked about it, the sicker she felt. She glanced at the clock—still early—and drove back to the Lings’ estate.
Chai Yanyu knew Yuan Meng was either at Blue Note or at the Ling house. Seeing her car drive off, he guessed she’d gone home.
“Qianchen, are you coming back tonight?” he asked.
“No,” Ling Qianchen said. He’d been planning to divorce Yuan Meng; after the night he’d made her cry he hadn’t returned home.
“Bro, I’ve got a gift for Aunt Ling in the car. It’s bulky—I need to drop it off at your place. Why don’t you come home tonight? Saves me another trip.” Chai Yanyu pushed. If Qianchen didn’t go back, Chai couldn’t expose that Ai Yue and Yuan Meng might be the same person—and he wasn’t about to tell Qianchen himself.
Qianchen had no intention of going home, but the thought of not seeing the little white rabbit they kept nagged at him. Unexpectedly, he changed his mind.
“All right. Drop it off and get out fast. Don’t cause any trouble.”
Chai Yanyu agreed so fast you’d think his legs were itching. He had no intention of going inside—what if Yuan Meng throttled him? Better to get the picture and run.
Their arrivals were close. As they reached the Ling estate entrance, Chai Yanyu saw Yuan Meng’s car pulling into the complex. He laughed—this was too easy—and snapped a photo, sending it to Qianchen.
“Bro, see? Isn’t that Ai Yue’s car? What’s she doing here?”
Qianchen didn’t reply. Everything he’d been suspicious of suddenly lined up in his head; the truth felt like it was about to surface. He sped to the house.
Chai Yanyu, mission accomplished, turned his car around at an unhurried pace. He hadn’t brought a present for the matron at all; going inside with Yuan Meng around was asking for a beating. Best to run.
Qianchen strode into the house. A maid at the foot of the stairs, busy tidying, looked up startled. “Is the madam at home?”
“She’s been home all day, sir,” the maid said, lowering her eyes. “She just went to bed not long ago.”
Something about that didn’t sit right with Qianchen. He ran up the stairs and threw open the bedroom door.
The room was cool; the window was wide open. On the bed lay Yuan Meng, naked and facing away from the door, breathing in a sleep that looked peaceful.
“Mm…” Yuan Meng blinked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as if she’d just been rudely awakened.
Bang. Qianchen slammed the door shut with a flush of shock. How shameless—sleeping without clothes or even a blanket, and with the window open like that!
His train of thought scattered. The scenario made no sense: why sleep uncovered with the window open on a chilly day? The only explanation was that she’d just climbed in through the window and had no time to change—so she’d stripped everything off.
As for the maid’s earlier claim that Yuan Meng had stayed home all day, that wasn’t necessarily false. When suspicions first rose on the set, she’d arranged a stand-in with a similar build to be seen when face recognition wouldn’t be used. If someone didn’t look closely, they’d never notice.
Yuan Meng hurriedly pulled on clothes. “It’s been too long since I grossed Qianchen out—since he walked right into my lap…”
She opened the bedroom door and wrapped herself around Qianchen. Her soft chest pressed against him; the pajama neckline sat low enough that his eyes fell on her collarbone.
“My husband! You missed me, didn’t you? You came to see me. I missed you so much—can you stay tonight?” She buried her face against his neck and clung to him like a slow-moving koala.
Gooseflesh prickled across Qianchen. He shoved her off with force.
He looked around the room for anything out of place and found nothing.
“Why would you sleep with the window open and no clothes?” he asked, frowning. Something still didn’t add up.
“I… I felt warm,” she said, pouting with injured innocence. “And I always sleep naked. You never come home, you never… sleep with me, so how would you know?”
“You were out when I came in. I thought I saw you at the door. Were you really asleep all day?”
He probed, wanting to trip her up. After all, he had seen Ai Yue’s car—could it be a coincidence? Did Ai Yue live here now too?
“What? Have you missed me so badly you’re seeing things? I really was asleep. If you wanted me, you could’ve just said so—I’ve been home waiting for you!”
Qianchen was getting irritable. He turned to go downstairs. “Fine. Then go back to sleep.”
“Housekeeper—has she really been home?” he asked the steward on his way down. He didn’t trust Yuan Meng or the maid.
“Yes, sir. Madam stayed home all day. She was asleep just a short while ago.”
“All right. Get Chai Yanyu on something for me.”
Downstairs, Yuan Meng, knowing how Chai Yanyu worked, guessed this whole setup had been deliberate. She fished her phone out and called, but the calls didn’t connect.
[Chai Yanyu—didn’t we agree not to reveal my identity until the bet finishes? What do you mean by getting Qianchen and me to turn up at the Ling house one after the other?]
[If you can’t admit you lost, say so. I wouldn’t push you. This cheap trick is low, even for you.]
She scolded him in her head. Her phone buzzed. She opened the message, expecting Chai Yanyu—only to see a plea from Liu Yi.
[Pengpeng… I’m in pieces. I don’t know who to turn to. My mother’s in hospital—she’s very sick. The doctors say she needs a bone marrow transplant. It’s expensive, and finding a donor is hard. I’m filming all the time trying to earn money but… I don’t know if we can make it in time. What should I do?]
Yuan Meng stared at the messages, stunned into silence. Life was cruel and unpredictable; sickness and death were part of it, but the hardest thing was the looming separation from someone you loved.
[Liu Yi, don’t panic. Get the hospital to do what they can. I’ll think of a way to help.]
She couldn’t ask Qianchen for help—he would only tell her to mind her own business. But she had options besides Qianchen. Chai Yanyu, for all his gossip-hound tendencies, had money and connections. He was arrogant but not heartless.
She pressed forward, combining Liu Yi’s plea and forwarding it.
[Forwarded message]
[Since you’re so shameless, here’s a chance to earn some good karma—help this one out.]