Volume 1, Chapter 67: Taking Her Home

The spacious private dining room instantly fell silent. Everyone stared at me in surprise, each wearing a different expression on their face.

Of course, the most fascinating reaction belonged to Xie Zian.

His complexion was so unsightly, it looked as though he had been slapped fiercely across the face multiple times.

I dazedly accepted the VIP card, my mind struggling to process what had just happened.

The young woman flashed a professional smile once more and asked me politely, "Is there anything else you require? Sister Yin instructed that any request you make must be fulfilled."

At that moment, I saw a waiter walking into the private room carrying two bottles of XO—the very two bottles Xie Zian had ordered.

An idea suddenly flashed through my mind like a divine inspiration. I nodded and said, "I do have one more request."

"Please go ahead."

I pointed at the two bottles of cognac that had just been brought in, and then pointed at Xie Zian. "These two bottles were ordered by him. Do not add them to the room's tab; make him pay for them himself."

Xie Zian: "..."

As soon as he settled his bill, he immediately slunk away in disgrace.

Although Zhang Yin had given me plenty of face, I didn't feel particularly happy about it, because Lin Feifei was still angry with me.

From beginning to end, she had barely paid any attention to me. All evening, everyone else was drinking, while she and I didn't touch a single drop of alcohol.

After the gathering dispersed, she pulled Xue Qiuyun into her car and sped away directly, leaving me no chance to explain myself at all.

I stood blankly in the parking lot, watching her car drive away like the wind, feeling a sense of desolation.

Instead of taking a cab, I lit a cigarette and began walking home on my own two feet.

The moon and stars above were dim, but the human world below was like a sea of lights.

I felt like a solitary boat adrift on the ocean, swaying aimlessly as I walked down the street.

Before long, an entire pack of cigarettes was gone.

I had no idea how to explain tonight's events to her.

As I walked, I silently tried to sort out my thoughts. Eventually, tired of walking, I simply sat down on the curbside to smoke.

I took out my phone to hail a ride.

It was then that I truly realized how inconvenient it was to be without a car. The bar street was filled with people out for a good time, and trying to get a cab at this hour was nearly impossible. The app showed more than a dozen people ahead of me in the queue, and even finding a shared bicycle nearby to scan was a struggle.

With no other options, I gritted my teeth and kept walking forward!

I hadn't gone far when a car behind me started honking its horn incessantly. At first, I didn't pay attention and simply stepped aside, but to my surprise, it pulled over right next to me.

"Handsome, get in!"

The car window rolled down, revealing Bai Yongqi's delicate and refined face.

I was stunned. "What the hell! Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"I got off early! Drive me home!"

Deeply shocked, I pointed at my own nose. "You want me to drive you home?"

Just then, a breeze swept past, blowing away a few strands of hair resting against her cheek.

Beneath the orange streetlights, a faintly discernible slap mark was visible on her left cheek.

I froze for a moment and asked in astonishment, "Your face..."

Bai Yongqi touched her cheek and let out a dismissive "oh," as if she were already entirely accustomed to it.

"Oh, a customer hit me, that's all!"

A slight pang of ache pierced my heart. Perhaps because we were both drifters in a foreign city, a surge of sympathy for her welled up inside me.

She stepped out of the car somewhat unsteadily, tossed the car keys to me, and looked at me with a smile, an alluring blush resting on her cheeks.

"You didn't drink tonight, did you?"

I shook my head. Lin Feifei had ignored me all evening, and even the lavish Paradise Royale couldn't arouse my interest.

"That's wonderful! Drive for me then, so I don't get busted for drunk driving."

Catching the strong scent of alcohol on her, I finally snapped back to reality. I caught the keys and gave her a sideways glance. "You certainly don't seem afraid of being caught for drunk driving."

Bai Yongqi chuckled. "Yeah, I was worried! Thank goodness I ran into you."

I shook my head. "If you've been drinking, don't drive ever again. It's too dangerous. A single drop of alcohol behind the wheel brings two lines of tears to your family."

Unexpectedly, Bai Yongqi burst into a loud laugh, her laughter tinged with a wild, devil-may-care attitude.

"Family? I don't have any fucking family. My dad doesn't care about me at all, and my stepmother only cares about marrying me off as quickly as possible to get the betrothal money so she can buy a house and a bride for her son. Family? Heh, do you really think I have a family?"

Her words left me silent. The impression she gave me was like a drifting dandelion, battered and bruised yet still forced to float wherever the wind carried it.

She paused, and the look she gave me finally held a glimmer of light as the corners of her lips curled upward:
"Since I ran into you, I'm not afraid anymore."

The heavy atmosphere pressed down on me, making me feel suffocated, so I couldn't help but try to crack a joke to ease the tension.

"Have you ever considered a certain possibility?"

I raised the corners of my mouth, deliberately drawing out the suspense.

"What?"

"Getting into a man's car in the middle of the night might have consequences even worse than getting caught for drunk driving."

I teased her on purpose, but instead of being scared, she looked quite excited.

"That would be fantastic. That's exactly what I'm hoping for."

"..."

The car slowly started moving. Bai Yongqi sat in the passenger seat, pressing her head deeply against the car window without moving a muscle. The mottled light of the streetlights made her slender figure appear even thinner.

"Hey, where do you live?" I asked after the car got under way.

"I can't remember."

Taken aback, I glanced at her in disbelief, rubbed my ears, and asked again.

"Stop messing around. I'm asking where you live!"

"I told you, I really forgot. I drank too much, and my head hurts. Or maybe I was beaten stupid."

"..."

Her evasive, devil-may-care attitude left me speechless, but I couldn't just dump her by the roadside either, leaving me in a rather awkward dilemma.

For a woman—especially a pretty woman who had been drinking—to say something like that to me in the middle of the night carried implications that anyone who understood would grasp, yet I found it intensely headache-inducing.

I frowned. "Hey, hey, hey, stop playing around. Seriously, where do you live?"

Bai Yongqi turned her head weakly, her gaze falling upon me. Her dark eyes were deep, carrying a touch of pitiful vulnerability mixed into her look. "Didn't I already tell you? You can take me anywhere you want; I just don't want to go home."

"Why is that?"

A trace of gloom flashed across her peach-blossom cheeks, and her usual alluring charm completely vanished.

"Because that asshole of a stepbrother is at my place!"

She paused, glanced at me, and continued, "Even if I hadn't run into you, I was planning to stay at a hotel anyway. I'm afraid of being harassed by him."

I paused for a few seconds of hesitation before asking, "Is he your stepbrother?"

Bai Yongqi let out a light, disdainful snort. "Of course not, he's the son my stepmother brought with her."

I nodded, roughly understanding the situation now, and resigned myself to fate as I said,

"Fine! Tonight, you're coming with me!"

She smiled like a kitten, gracefully and lazily hooking her arm through mine.

"Hehe, I knew you were the nicest person."

Feeling the astonishing elasticity pressing against my arm, I shuddered all over like I had touched a live wire, and my body reacted accordingly.

"Hey, hey, hey, watch it, I'm driving!"

She let out a soft huff, pouted, and loosened her arm.

The car sped toward home like the wind. Once inside the vehicle, the alcohol finally hit her hard. Although she wasn't completely passed out like Lin Feifei had been, her steps were still somewhat unsteady as she walked.

She was wearing high heels and had been drinking, so fearing she might accidentally twist her ankle, I supported her as we walked up. Fortunately, she behaved quite well along the way; even when our bodies brushed against each other, it was completely normal, and I let out a secret sigh of relief.

I unlocked the door. She kicked off her high heels and walked inside barefoot. Following close behind, I watched her alluring silhouette, and my blood seemed to boil all over again.

A slender waist, long legs, and a graceful posture were enough to spark wild imaginations.

I wrapped some ice cubes in a towel, rolled it into a cylinder, and handed it to her, pointing at the slap mark on her face.

"Apply this as a cold compress first; it can quickly reduce the red mark."

"Thank you."

She took the towel and pressed it gently against her face.

I went to the kitchen and made her a cup of honey water. "Drink some honey water; it helps sober you up."

Bai Yongqi's eyes lit up. She took it with a smile, took a small sip, and let out an exclamation of wonder.

"I never took you for the caring type. Not bad at all, my blind-date match."

The corners of my mouth twitched, and a somewhat bitter taste lingered in my stomach.

I had originally thought I could just brush the blind date off and be done with it, but who would have imagined that my match turned out to be Bai Yongqi? And now, to deal with her family, she had dragged me into it, leaving me with no clue how to explain this to my old man back home. I couldn't possibly tell him, "Last time you set me up with someone for me to worship like an ancestor, and this time you've found me a 'princess'?"

After a brief moment of contemplation, I decided to change the subject. "By the way, why did that customer hit you?"

Bai Yongqi curved the corners of her lips and let out a breath. "He wanted to take me away, and I refused!"
"And you got hit, yet your manager and the security guards just stood by and did nothing?"

Bai Yongqi gave a dismissive wave, seeming completely accustomed to it. "Regular customers certainly wouldn't dare throw punches, but this time it was a big boss, so getting hit comes with the territory. If I made a fuss, I wouldn't be able to work there anymore."

I fell silent. Though she spoke of it so lightly, I could sense a deep bitterness hidden beneath her words. Seeing that it was getting late and having been exhausted by the day's events, I retrieved a set of bedding from the bedroom and offered the bedroom itself to her.

"You can sleep in the bedroom. The sheets are freshly changed, you can wear any clothes you find in the wardrobe, and I've put the toiletries on the bedside table for you."

Bai Yongqi blinked. "And you're sleeping on the sofa?"

I forced a wry smile. "Can a piece-of-junk sofa like that fit my long legs? I'll just sleep on the floor; there's a carpet anyway, and I'll lay down an extra mattress."

She hesitated for a few seconds. "Aren't you worried the floor will be cold and make you sick?"

Looking at her dazzling and peerless pretty face, I was left between laughter and tears. "I'm worried the damage from sleeping in that bed would be even worse."

She padded around the bedroom barefoot for a moment. "Actually, the bed is quite large. Sleeping two people wouldn't be a problem at all."

I smiled speechlessly. "Wishing you sweet dreams. Good night."

With that, I pulled the door shut behind me.

After falling asleep, I had a dream. In the dream, I found myself doing indescribable things with Lin Feifei, but gradually, her face slowly transformed into that of Bai Yongqi...