Chapter 36 : The Drunken Confrontation

“Didn’t you say you were coming back the day after tomorrow?”

In the corner of the private room, A Qiu leaned in next to Péi Wanyi, preparing to have a serious talk with her.

This person really just said whatever came to mind. If he hadn’t reacted quickly just now, he didn’t know how she would have saved face.

Péi Wanyi glanced at the door of the room—the person who had gone out to answer the phone hadn’t been back for ten minutes.

She looked back at A Qiu and asked back,
“How did you two run into each other?”

A Qiu thought the whole thing was absurd and explained it to her in a few words.

“I was having dinner with a friend, and who knew something like this would happen. She’s really brave, daring to handle that kind of situation alone.”

As he spoke, A Qiu couldn’t help but sigh.
“I had some misunderstandings about her at first. I was wrong.”

Péi Wanyi thought of the first party, and how her impression of Jiang Yanlin was also full of prejudice.

The first time she saw her, she felt a strong scent of “green tea” from a distance.

Thinking of this, Péi Wanyi curled her lip.

It had been a long time since she had seen such a pretentious woman.
—Everyone else was pretending to be a good person, but she did the opposite.

“So you came back because you finished your work, or was it something urgent?”

A Qiu was very curious about why she was going back and forth like this. Although they had only known each other for a little over half a year, usually when she was on a business trip, you wouldn’t see her for at least three to five days.

These past two times, however, it was either a round trip on the same day or leaving yesterday and coming back today, as if the plane tickets were free and her energy was endless.

Péi Wanyi didn’t really know either.

It was just that when she woke up that morning, she felt that it was unbearable.

So she finished her work at the fastest speed, without a moment’s rest, and rushed to catch a plane before dusk, even buying the last business class ticket on the fastest direct flight.

On the way, she didn’t know what she was anxious about.

The usual dullness and trivialities became particularly annoying. She didn’t want to answer work calls, didn’t want to read work emails, didn’t want to spend her time on these repetitive and worthless things.

It wasn’t until she got off the plane and felt the air and humidity of this city that Péi Wanyi felt that bit of restlessness being soothed a little.

When she came back to her senses, she had already thrown her suitcase to the driver and had taken a taxi to Jiang Yanlin’s apartment by herself.

But Jiang Yanlin wasn’t there.

She was actually, in the middle of the night, at this hour, not at home.

She had only been gone for two days.

Just two days.

When Péi Wanyi thought of how her slippers had been thrown away after her last business trip, she felt a wave of nameless anger.

She had already acted like a dog in bed to please her, and yet she still turned her back on her so quickly after getting what she wanted.

Don’t even think about it. No way.

Péi Wanyi looked at the tightly closed door. It only took her a few seconds to select the lucky audience member, Comrade Zhuang Mingqiu, from a group of friends—because he was the most idle, having been bored to death since he retired.

But Péi Wanyi didn’t expect that Jiang Yanlin would be with A Qiu.

How did she suddenly get involved with A Qiu?

Was this right?
—El had just calmed down.

But after hearing that the two of them had just come from the police station, Péi Wanyi didn’t know what to say.

This woman, Jiang Yanlin, would get into trouble wherever she went. This was definitely not victim-blaming, but a fact.

Didn’t she know to stay away? Did she have to be a hero?

Péi Wanyi had actually wanted to say this last time, but she knew that Jiang Yanlin wouldn’t like to hear it, and there was no need to be annoying.

But that is a common sense that everyone must have.

Last time, that half-American, half-Japanese playboy, who knows what kind of person he was, whether he would fly into a rage and beat someone up, she still dared to go to his territory alone to get information.

This time, it was even more amazing. It directly ended up with her going to the police station to give a statement.

Could she guarantee that the man who had committed the crime would be locked up for the rest of his life, and that he wouldn’t come looking for trouble with her as soon as he got out?

Seeing that there was no expression on her face, A Qiu couldn’t guess what she was thinking. After thinking for a long time, he still advised, “I think Xiao Jiang and Xiao Qing are completely different types. She’s cold on the outside but warm on the inside. She’s a good girl. If you like her, you should develop it properly and not think too much.”

Péi Wanyi couldn’t help but laugh.

What like or not like? From beginning to end, it was just a friends-with-benefits relationship.

She didn’t want to continue this topic. She poured him a glass of wine and clinked her glass against his.

A Qiu sensed that she was in a bad mood and didn’t say anything more, just picked up his glass and drank with her.

He looked like a rough guy, but in reality, he was a very meticulous person. None of the colleagues and friends he had known before he retired could have imagined that he had a background in art.

He and Péi Wanyi got along well, also because they had similar interests. They loved to draw, play competitive games, and also drink and chat.

A Qiu admired her excellence and also had some sympathy for her experiences.

So from the bottom of his heart, he hoped that Péi Wanyi would not go through it again.

“Okay, I know. Don’t send too much, I can’t finish it all.”

…and after a few more idle chats, they said goodbye.

She hung up the phone and walked towards the door of the private room. She didn’t notice the person behind her, and they bumped into each other.

“Ah, sorry.”

The girl who had bumped into Jiang Yanlin quickly apologized. Jiang Yanlin smiled, pulled the door open, and let her in first.

“It’s okay. You go in first.”

The girl was wearing a white dress. In the dim light, she looked a bit young and full of vitality.

She quickly thanked Jiang Yanlin and went into the room first.

Jiang Yanlin had never seen her before, but she didn’t have much contact with Péi Wanyi’s circle, so she didn’t pay much attention and followed her into the room.

Xiao Nuo wasn’t here tonight, only the friends A Qiu had called over. A few people were either drinking together or queuing up songs and singing. For Jiang Yanlin, it was actually a bit boring.

But A Qiu had just helped her out, so Jiang Yanlin was still willing to come to his gathering.
—Even if he hadn’t initiated it.

The girl who had just entered the room caught everyone’s attention. A Qiu was the first to greet her. “Mi Yun is here. Long time no see.”

Jiang Yanlin followed his gaze and finally found the person hiding in the corner. She was about to go over when she saw her suddenly get up, walk a few steps to the girl, and open her arms to give her a hug.

“Mi Yun, why are you here?”

Péi Wanyi let go of her hand, her voice tinged with a smile.

The girl smiled shyly and looked at A Qiu.
“I saw the message in the group chat after I finished work today, so I came to see you guys. Are you back from your business trip?”

A few familiar people were catching up and chatting. The boring gathering seemed to have been injected with vitality by the arrival of a new friend.

Jiang Yanlin poured herself a glass of warm water and sat on a barstool to check her phone messages.

She had been out all night and had hardly looked at her phone.

Chen Yuran had sent her a message to let her know she was home safe. Jiang Yanlin replied, telling her to get some rest.

Chen Yuran was a little angry later when she found out that Jiang Yanlin had paid the bill in advance, but when Jiang Yanlin said she would let her treat her to dinner next time, the young girl was immediately placated and said that she would have to book a table at that influencer-famous restaurant next time.

Jiang Yanlin thought for a moment and still didn’t say that she was actually tired of that restaurant.

The people around her were either chatting or drinking. Jiang Yanlin found a quiet spot in the midst of the noise and dealt with her unread messages one by one.

The fish she hadn’t paid attention to in a long time had come to ask her to play games again. Jiang Yanlin only replied, “I’ll call you next time I’m free.”

A reply is better than no reply. The other party was very enthusiastic and didn’t seem dissatisfied at all.

It’s good to be sensible. Only the sensible can live longer in the pond.

As she thought, Jiang Yanlin casually deleted the few people who had sent messages asking her why she hadn’t replied.

Not a shred of self-awareness.

Li Yuncheng had left her a message, saying that she had almost finished booking the hotel and asked when Jiang Yanlin would be free to hang out.

Coincidentally, Lin Xiaoqi had also sent a message to Jiang Yanlin at the same time, saying that her interview results were quite good, and at least she would have a job in the future.

So she planned to go back to the country before she started working. After becoming a corporate s*ave, she would no longer have the freedom to go back to the country at any time. She wanted to go home to see her family and get together with her friends.

Jiang Yanlin thought it was a coincidence. It seemed that everyone was getting together recently.

She only replied to both Li Yuncheng and Lin Xiaoqi, saying that her work schedule was flexible and that they could do whatever was convenient for them.

Saike was green with envy when she heard about this.

She had just finished one exam with good scores. Conservatively, she would be able to get in after finishing the next two exams. But re-studying a major was equivalent to going to university again, and she still had to find her high school transcripts and graduation certificate.

Saike could only contact her international high school late at night, not sure if she could find it. The worst-case scenario was to go back to the country in person to get a certificate from the school.

“I hope not,” she said, and then went back offline to study.

Jiang Yanlin also hoped that everything would go smoothly for her, so that her sleepless efforts would be worth it.

Her friends around her had all started a new stage of their lives. Jiang Yanlin was just watching from the sidelines, and she also felt some strength, which could give her more strength to move forward.

A person lives in this world for only a few decades. It seems long, but in the blink of an eye, a fraction of it is squandered. But is it really a squander?

When the drama “Rebooting Life” first came out, Jiang Yanlin chased it week by week and felt that her soul had been baptized.

“Why do we feel that a year is very long when we are young, but a year is very short when we grow up?”

The protagonist and her childhood friend were walking on the road. A few of the most ordinary chats left the deepest memory on Jiang Yanlin.

“—Because a year in childhood accounted for one-tenth of our lives. Now a year is one-thirtieth.”

Time is never wasted.

One year after another is added, one second after another is accumulated. The thickness of life is not deprived of its fairness by success or failure.

Ordinary, decadent, squandered, unremarkable.

In the just calculation of numbers, they have become your fractions.

You are composed of these vast numbers, and none of them can be missing.

Jiang Yanlin was willing to believe that “everything that happens is for my benefit.”

So as long as you move forward, a bad process will always lead to a good result.

It’s just that many times, she would also be tired and would want to stop and look at the scenery along the way.

At this time, a little bit of motivation is enough. Whether it’s friends or strangers, the bright brilliance of other people’s lives can make Jiang Yanlin continue to firmly believe—
“The anthem of humanity is an anthem of courage.”

But courage never includes recklessness.

Jiang Yanlin finished the warm water in her glass and had almost finished replying to the unread messages on her phone.

She looked up and saw that the person over there was already drunk, smiling and chatting with the people around her, taking a sip of the wine in her glass from time to time.

I don’t know how much she drank.

Jiang Yanlin didn’t want to stay in a place full of drunks. Seeing that it was already late at night, she simply took her things and quietly left the private room.

However, she had only walked a few steps out of the room when her phone rang.

Jiang Yanlin didn’t stop. She walked to the elevator and didn’t want to answer.

The ringtone of the voice call continued to ring, making people irritable.

Jiang Yanlin pressed the elevator button and only then answered the voice call, asking,
“What is it?”

Miss Péi’s voice was a bit hoarse, but her tone was so matter-of-fact:
“Where are you going?”

Jiang Yanlin thought it was funny. When did it become necessary for her to report where she was going? She was really nosy.

“Going somewhere else,” she replied coldly.

The person on the other end of the line paused. A few seconds later, she threw out a sentence:
“Then you can go.”

After saying that, she hung up the voice call.

Jiang Yanlin didn’t know how much she had drunk to be like this.

Her usual arrogant and condescending demeanor was completely gone now, leaving only a childishness that was worse than a three-year-old.

Drinking is harmful.

Jiang Yanlin sighed. The elevator had already arrived, but she still resignedly walked back, calling back on the voice call.
—She had to go and check on the situation. After all, there were only two girls in the room.

The corridor was not long. She walked back to the door of the private room in a few minutes. During this time, the drunkard didn’t answer the voice call, so Jiang Yanlin didn’t bother to call again.

It was noisy inside. Even through the door, she could feel the frowning noise.

Jiang Yanlin composed herself and pushed the door open.

The first thing she saw was A Qiu being pulled by a few friends to sing. People who are drunk are all like this, with high spirits, singing high notes randomly, completely ignoring the lives of the people around them.

Jiang Yanlin scanned the room. The blue light hit the black decor, making it difficult to see clearly. After a moment, she finally found the figure in the corner.

The person, wearing only a black shirt, seemed to have drunk too much and was lying horizontally on the sofa in the corner.

To be precise, she was lying horizontally on another person.

She had her eyes closed and moved her head on the girl’s lap, as if she were not comfortable.

The girl in the white dress sat there, gently brushing her black hair aside and changing her to a more comfortable position.

Then she gently patted her shoulder, as if to comfort her, one after another.

It was a very beautiful picture.

Jiang Yanlin sighed in her heart and couldn’t help but take out her phone, find the right composition, and take a good picture.

With a little editing and some nice typography, it could be used as a poster.

After doing all this, Jiang Yanlin looked around the room again. After confirming that there was nothing to worry about, she closed the door of the room and turned to walk towards the elevator.

The special car she had called arrived at the entrance in a few minutes. Jiang Yanlin got in, opened the window for some fresh air, and let the smell of alcohol that had been clinging to her dissipate a little.

It wasn’t until she got out of the car and reached her apartment that she felt it didn’t smell so bad anymore.

She spent some time washing up, drying her hair, and doing her skincare. With the thought that her routine would definitely be back to normal tomorrow, she was in a peaceful mood and ready to go to bed.

As soon as she touched the bed, the doorbell rang.

“…”

Jiang Yanlin pulled the covers over her head, blocking out all sounds.

The doorbell rang again, once every few seconds, the frequency gradually increasing, showing that the uninvited guest’s patience was running out.

Jiang Yanlin’s patience was also completely gone.
—She couldn’t even imagine how many neighbors would go to the property management to complain about her tomorrow.

The person disturbing the peace in the middle of the night had no self-awareness and kept ringing the doorbell.

Jiang Yanlin got out of bed, didn’t even put on her slippers, and walked quickly to the entrance on her bare feet on the wooden floor. She took a look through the video doorbell.

The next second, Jiang Yanlin opened the main door with a straight face, interrupting her tireless ringing.

“Are you sick?”

She had no desire to speak properly anymore, but her tone was still without emotion, and her volume was even lower than usual.

The person standing at the door had her black hair loose, and her shirt was open at the collar. She was leaning on the doorframe with one hand to stand up straight. The smell of alcohol had already hit Jiang Yanlin’s face, making her mood even more irritable.

Péi Wanyi stared at her and asked back,
“Why did you leave without a word?”

Jiang Yanlin didn’t think this question needed to be answered.

“I can leave whenever I want.”

This was her freedom.

Péi Wanyi looked at her for a moment and suddenly curled her lip into a smile.

“Yes, you can come and go as you please.”

It was the same with El, and it was the same with her.

It seemed to be the same with everyone.

As Péi Wanyi thought, she slowly stepped forward, approaching her.

“Jiang Yanlin, do you think this is fun?”

Treating everyone as a toy, a pastime, a disposable slipper to be thrown away after use.

Jiang Yanlin didn’t want to argue with a drunkard, and she didn’t want to argue with anyone.

“It’s the middle of the night. If you want to go crazy, go crazy in your own home.”

As she spoke, she was about to close the door.

Péi Wanyi’s hand was on the doorframe. She raised her chin and glanced at her.

She had the air that even if she closed the door, she wouldn’t let go.

Jiang Yanlin was sure that she, Péi Wanyi, could do it.

What a mad dog.

But Jiang Yanlin also didn’t want to let her in again.

“Péi Wanyi, are you sober or not? Do you know what time it is?”

“I don’t f*cking care.”

The usually reserved person suddenly lowered her voice and threw a curse at her with a light laugh.

Jiang Yanlin almost laughed in anger.

“Then what do you care about?”

She had completely given up on effective dialogue and simply went along with her words, using the most negative response.

On the contrary, Péi Wanyi found it even more ridiculous.

“Shouldn’t that be my line?”

What did you, Jiang Yanlin, ever care about?

You are the most playful, the most free to come and go.

Before getting what you want, you are the best at playing coy, flirting lightly, and with a flair that no one can match, you set up layers of traps, luring people to jump in.

Not refusing is your biggest lie.

Kissing, hugging, sleeping together, a familiar pleasure, making people think they have eaten you, but in the end, they are eaten clean and can be thrown away at any time.

In all her life, Péi Wanyi had met all kinds of women.

But there was absolutely no one who could be more annoying than her, Jiang Yanlin.

You can’t reach her when you want to, and you can’t get her out of your head when you want to let her go. All the wants and don’t wants, in the end, you find that they are completely irrelevant.

Time and time again, Péi Wanyi had thought that this was just a more difficult challenge.

Crazy, hysterical, calculating, ruthless, she was already used to it, and treated it as another bad debt that was not worth mentioning.

Life is long. How can you get through it without a bit of fun?

But this time, Péi Wanyi had to admit that her anger was burning, and no amount of alcohol, ice, or any other cooling method could put it out.

“Jiang Yanlin, do you think this is fun?”

Péi Wanyi asked patiently and slowly for the second time.

Jiang Yanlin couldn’t understand the drunkard’s words, and her only response was a cold sneer.

Péi Wanyi no longer needed her answer. She just smiled faintly and said to her,
“Okay, I’ll play with you.”

As she spoke, she raised her hand and pushed her back.

Jiang Yanlin had been on guard, but under the undeniable force, all her defenses were futile.

Her body was pressed against the shoe cabinet at the entrance, and the main door slammed shut with a “bang.”

Jiang Yanlin pursed her lips, looked up at her, and asked with a straight face,
“What the hell do you want to do?”

Péi Wanyi thought her question was redundant.

But she was still very patient, propping one hand on the shoe cabinet and saying to her, word by word,
“f*ck you.”