Chapter 36
The wine Gao Yuan had brought out was truly top-shelf. It didn’t feel like much while drinking, but now the aftereffects were kicking in. Even Jiang Liu, who had a decent tolerance for alcohol, couldn’t help but feel a little dizzy.
She shook her head slightly, trying to keep her mind clear. The hairpin in her hand successfully hooked the lock cylinder. Jiang Liu’s heart leaped with joy, and with a gentle twist to the left—
With a soft click, the lock sprang open.
That was the problem with old-fashioned mechanical locks; they were too easy to open.
Jiang Liu reached out, removed the lock, and was about to open the door when she suddenly felt that something was off.
Someone had appeared behind her at some point. A pair of beautiful hands reached over from behind, covering the back of her own. The cool touch from the outside brought a moment of clarity to Jiang Liu’s eyes.
She turned around abruptly, just in time to meet a pair of emotionless eyes.
The temperature in the room suddenly rose. Fueled by the alcohol, a thin layer of sweat had formed on her back. Jiang Liu’s gaze was fixed on the person before her.
It was the same familiar shirt and trousers. Perhaps because of the heat, the top two buttons were undone, revealing a pair of delicate collarbones.
Jiang Liu’s head was spinning. In a daze, she saw a pair of thin lips move before her. “What are you doing?”
She subconsciously took a step back, her back pressing against the cool wall. Yang Caisi didn’t withdraw her hands; instead, she kept them in an enclosing posture, trapping her within.
She was clearly half a head shorter, but in the current situation, she seemed particularly aggressive.
No, that wasn’t the right tone.
Staring at that unsmiling face, an indescribable sense of dissonance rose from the bottom of her heart. Jiang Liu shook her head forcefully, and with a stumble, she fell into Yang Caisi’s arms.
“You…”
The cool temperature made Jiang Liu sigh in comfort, and at the same time, it caught Yang Caisi completely off guard.
Her mouth fell slightly open, and she looked at the person in her arms in surprise, a little lost.
Neither in the past nor now had she ever seen Jiang Liu like this.
Her long hair was casually draped over her shoulders, and her round-necked t-shirt had slipped to one side due to her posture, revealing half of her neck. Her most vital point was exposed without hesitation, making her seem as docile and gentle as a cat with its claws retracted.
The person in her arms went still, her eyes half-closed as she leaned against her shoulder. For a moment, Yang Caisi couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. She held her breath stiffly, her tone strange. “Sister…?”
There was no response, only the sound of Jiang Liu’s long, even breaths. The heat on her forehead made her sleep uncomfortably, and she impatiently shifted her position a couple of times.
Yang Caisi unconsciously swallowed. Seeing that she was completely silent, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She supported the other woman and gently placed her on the bed, then quickly opened the window.
A cool breeze blew in through the window, washing over them, but it couldn’t dispel the heat rising from Yang Caisi’s body. With a half-flushed face, she went to pour a glass of water and place it on the bedside table.
Unconsciously, it was almost evening.
The stuffy heat of the summer afternoon had subsided slightly. She deftly rolled up her sleeves, prepared a damp towel, and began to wipe Jiang Liu’s face.
The towel was soaking wet, and the cool sensation lingered on her palm, finally pulling Yang Caisi’s chaotic thoughts back to reality.
Few people ever came to her house, except for Gao Yuan, who occasionally eyed the wine in her warehouse.
At first, Yang Caisi didn’t understand how Jiang Liu had found this place, but now she had figured out the possibility. Smelling the alcohol on Jiang Liu, she shook her head helplessly.
“Having a high tolerance isn’t an excuse to drink like this,” she sighed softly, her voice so quiet it was as if she were talking to herself.
She leaned closer to Jiang Liu. Before the towel could touch her forehead, a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. It wasn’t a very strong grip, but Yang Caisi was completely unprepared. She was pulled forward and stumbled, falling onto Jiang Liu.
Looking closely, she saw that the supposedly sleeping Jiang Liu had opened her eyes at some point. Her bright eyes were sparkling with life, tinged with the mischievousness of a successful prank.
“Miss Yang, why did you stop pretending?” Jiang Liu’s lips curved into a smile, her tone cheerful.
Yang Caisi stared at her, the gentleness on her face instantly freezing, her tone subtle. “You weren’t drunk?”
Jiang Liu smiled smugly, a hint of pride in her expression. “Your colleague’s wine has quite a kick, but not just anyone can get me drunk.”
It was true she was a little dizzy, but she was nowhere near the point of passing out on the spot.
Yang Caisi pressed her lips together, then abruptly looked away and got up. “This is not a place you should be.”
—A pair of burning hot arms wrapped around her waist. Jiang Liu clung to her like a spoiled child, refusing to let her leave.
“We knew each other before, right?”
Yang Caisi didn’t respond. Jiang Liu wasn’t annoyed and continued on her own. “I’ve had many dreams, and you were in all of them. So, what was our relationship?”
She had heard that “Sister” earlier, but she really didn’t remember ever having a younger sister.
Of course, whether her memory was even complete now was also debatable.
As she finished speaking, she keenly noticed an unnatural flicker in Yang Caisi’s expression. Although it quickly returned to normal, it was definitely not a trick of the light.
Jiang Liu’s head was spinning. A possibility suddenly jumped into her mind. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she asked, “Don’t tell me we were a couple? And I dumped you?”
Otherwise, why would Yang Caisi always be so cold and sarcastic whenever she saw her?
For a moment, she felt the world spin, and she stammered, “I was capable of that?”
Such a beautiful young lady—she would have been too busy doting on her. How could she have ruthlessly dumped her?
After getting drunk, her train of thought became particularly strange. Following this line of thinking, it somehow seemed completely reasonable. For a moment, she looked at Yang Caisi with a strange expression.
Could it be that Yang Caisi’s love had turned to hate, so she pulled her into the game to torture her? But as the saying goes, the deeper the love, the deeper the hate. She didn’t want anything to happen to her, so she kept helping her, right?
Yang Caisi was speechless.
When did she start watching so many melodramatic soap operas?
Seeing Jiang Liu’s gaze already drifting, she couldn’t help but facepalm, her face flushing as if her deepest secret had been exposed.
“Shut up!” If only it were that simple!!!
Anger welled up in Yang Caisi. Seeing her still tilting her head and letting her imagination run wild, she steeled herself, leaned down, and kissed the chattering mouth.
The warm touch instantly robbed Jiang Liu of her senses. She wanted to push Yang Caisi away, but her body inexplicably went soft. Even the act of raising her hands seemed more like a half-hearted protest than a real attempt to push her away.
Crash—
The loud noise was accompanied by Gao Yuan’s jaw, which had nearly hit the floor.
“Fuck???”
He shouted the earth-shattering curse with such gusto that people outside the window could probably hear it.
Yang Caisi quickly looked up, shooting an icy glare in his direction. She saw Gao Yuan tripping over the threshold and face-planting, with a wide-eyed Zhao Ziming right behind him.
She shot up from the bed in an instant, her voice as cold as frost. “Get out.”
Gao Yuan immediately broke into a violent coughing fit. His drunkenness vanished, and his legs no longer ached. How could he dare to stay in the room? He scrambled up from the floor, not forgetting to close his eyes.
“I’m drunk. I didn’t see anything.”
He pulled Zhao Ziming along, and the two of them fled downstairs as if their lives depended on it, terrified that a moment’s delay would get them killed by Yang Caisi’s glare.
Interrupted like that, any anger she had dissipated into thin air. Yang Caisi patted her face, trying to calm the fluttering in her heart.
Really, after all these years, didn’t she know what kind of person Jiang Liu was? Why was she getting angry with a drunk?
She took a few deep breaths, finally calming her turbulent thoughts. She couldn’t help but touch her lips, the brief moment of softness still fresh in her memory.
An irrepressible smile spread across Yang Caisi’s lips. She practically floated to the bedside, and then looked at Jiang Liu—
She, on the other hand, was carefree. The alcohol had hit her, and she had fallen asleep.
***
The next time she woke up, the ceiling of the hotel room greeted her. Jiang Liu rubbed her head, feeling inexplicably tired.
The curtains in the room were open, and it was already evening. From the thirteenth floor, the streetlights below were brilliant, and the crowds, far from diminishing, were even larger than during the day.
Getting drunk is fun for a moment, but waking up is not so pleasant.
She yawned lazily, turned on the light, and took out her phone, only to find more than ten missed calls. A quick glance revealed they were all from Zhang Xiaochen and Xu Meng.
She randomly dialed one back and learned that they were having dinner.
Jiang Liu quickly tidied up and rushed downstairs.
Besides the food provided by the hotel, there were also various restaurants in the public area. Some were run by NPCs, but most were part-time jobs for players, with points as the currency.
Jiang Liu had inquired before; a simple meal cost five or six points, which was quite a luxury.
So when she saw the group gathered in an empty hotpot restaurant, even she couldn’t help but twitch her lips.
“How much did you drink to order so much food?” Jiang Liu asked in surprise, looking at the overflowing table.
Zhao Ziming opened his mouth to speak, a strange expression on his face. After a long pause, he managed to choke out, “Sister Yang’s treat.”
Yang Caisi? She was that kind?
Hearing this, Jiang Liu grew even more curious and sat down nonchalantly. “Why is she treating us?”
Zhao Ziming fell silent again, his gaze occasionally darting towards her, a hesitant look on his face.
He couldn’t very well say it was hush money for himself, could he?
Zhang Xiaochen was eating with greasy lips. He took a moment to look up. “Don’t mind him. He’s been like this since he came back this afternoon. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
Jiang Liu didn’t think much of it. She rubbed her empty stomach and began to eat heartily. After two bites of meat, the hunger in her stomach subsided a little. She tapped the table and announced.
“Eat up. I’m taking you all out to have some fun tonight!”
Her drinking session with Gao Yuan hadn’t been entirely fruitless. At the very least, she had learned about a new place she hadn’t heard of before—a game hall.
Similar to a lottery station, you could exchange for passes by competing in various types of games. It was a low-end version of the Points Arena, and each person only needed five points for an entry ticket.
But before that, there was another question she needed to ask.
Jiang Liu turned her gaze to Zhao Ziming. “I’m planning to get a Team-up Pass. Do you want to join?”
Gao Yuan had mentioned a probability: if players in the same instance had the same rank, the chance of being matched into an advanced instance would increase. And in advanced instances—you could get a special kind of prop.
Whether it was Yang Caisi or Qiao Ke, being passive was not Jiang Liu’s style.
She would take the initiative to find a way to solve the mysteries surrounding her.