Chapter 71: The Drunken Confession

Su Mian was roused by a dull ache.

Her throat felt dry and constricted. She struggled to pry open her heavy eyelids, only to find herself in completely unfamiliar surroundings.

“Where am I?”

A jolt of primal fear instantly sobered her. She shot upright from the bed, her heart hammering wildly in her chest.

Scanning her surroundings, she noted the room was spacious and bright, furnished with brand-new, minimalist pieces.

Only after a few seconds did her jumbled memories begin to fall into place.

This was the apartment she had rented just yesterday.

She massaged her throbbing head, which felt as though it might split open, trying to dredge up fragmented recollections from the foggy expanse of her mind.

‘The barbecue stall… with Lu Yang and Qin Xuan… drinking… Lu Yang seemed to offer to take her home, but she refused… What happened after that?’

The thread of memory snapped, leaving a hazy void from that point onward.

A chill instantly snaked from the soles of her feet up her spine.

‘How did I get back last night?’

‘Could it be that Lu Yang or Qin Xuan, still worried, had asked for her address and brought her back?’

Su Mian’s heart plummeted, and a cold sweat instantly drenched her back.

She frantically glanced towards the living room—the suitcase containing all of “Sweetheart Marshmallow’s” belongings, which she hadn’t had time to properly unpack, still lay open beside the sofa.

‘If Lu Yang and Qin Xuan saw these…’

She could barely imagine the scene.

Panic, like an icy tide, instantly drowned out the discomfort of her hangover.

Just then, her phone shrilled in her pocket, displaying “Lu Yang” on the screen.

Su Mian’s heart lurched. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and swiftly began to concoct an excuse in her mind.

If Lu Yang inquired, she would claim they were merely items her younger sister, Su Baixue, had temporarily stored there.

She pressed the answer button, striving to keep her voice steady. “Hello, Boss Lu?”

From the other end, Lu Yang’s voice, tinged with concern and a hint of gossip, drifted through. “Hey, Mianzi, awake now? Did you sleep at home last night? Nothing happened, right?”

Su Mian held her breath, tentatively asking in return, “…Last night, did you bring me back?”

“No, I didn’t!” Lu Yang’s reply was crisp and clear.

Just as Su Mian’s suspended heart was about to settle slightly, Lu Yang’s subsequent words struck her like a bolt of lightning, exploding in her ears:

“Didn’t you call Xiao Moyuan yourself yesterday and ask him to pick you up?”

“…………”

Xiao Moyuan?

Su Mian froze, her mind buzzing into a complete blank. Her blood seemed to solidify in that instant, then surged, boiling, making her eardrums throb.

‘She asked Xiao Moyuan to pick her up?!’

‘And not as “Sweetheart Marshmallow”?!’

“I… I asked Xiao Moyuan to pick me up?” Her voice trembled uncontrollably, almost losing its tone.

“Yeah!”

Lu Yang’s tone was incredulous.

“Damn, you’re something else! When did your relationship with Xiao Moyuan get so solid? He was the first person you called when you were drunk? I thought he was coming to cause trouble for you, and I almost got into a fight with him!”

Su Mian felt her throat tighten, each word incredibly difficult to utter. “Are… are you sure… it was Xiao Moyuan?”

“That face of his, who in our school doesn’t recognize it? Could I mistake him?”

Lu Yang’s tone was certain, then tinged with a touch of lingering fear. “Though his expression wasn’t great at the time. Seeing you couldn’t even walk straight, he just picked you up directly and left.”

Picked… picked her up and left?!

Su Mian: “????”

‘Su Mian, his rival in love, was not the coquettish and mischievous Sweetheart Marshmallow.’

‘How could Xiao Moyuan embrace her?’

‘And by what right would he pick her up?’

‘I… I get it, Boss Lu. Thanks.’

Su Mian, her soul adrift, hung up the phone. A colossal fear spread from the depths of her heart.

What she most urgently needed to know now was whether she had been exposed.

She shakily tapped open her call history, confirming that the number dialed last night was indeed her own mobile number, not Sweetheart Marshmallow’s.

With no WeChat chat history to review, she couldn’t recall what she had actually said to Xiao Moyuan.

Was it just drunken gibberish, or had she divulged secrets she shouldn’t have? Such as being Sweetheart Marshmallow, or the changes in her body?

‘Calling Xiao Moyuan directly to ask? That would surely blow her cover.’

Whether she had been exposed could only be determined by observing and probing him face-to-face at school.

This series of frights completely dispelled her remaining drunkenness, replaced instead by lingering fear and anxiety.

She hastily washed up, haphazardly threw on her clothes, and tightened that damned chest binder even more, as if only this could grant her a sliver of security. Then, grabbing her textbooks, she made her way, unsteady on her feet, to the university.

***

The moment she stepped into the classroom, Su Mian felt her calves trembling slightly.

She almost held her breath, cautiously glancing towards his usual seat.

Xiao Moyuan and Shen Zhixia were both there.

When her figure appeared at the doorway, Xiao Moyuan merely looked up at the sound, giving her a faint glance. His eyes were calm and unruffled, no different from usual.

He then naturally turned his head, continuing to converse in low tones with Shen Zhixia beside him. Their topic seemed to be about plans for the National Day holiday.

Xiao Moyuan didn’t even spare her another glance.

Su Mian nervously walked to a seat in the back row behind them, her heart lodged high in her throat.

Shen Zhixia then turned around, a wide smile on her face. “A-Mian, where are you going for National Day? Have you decided yet?”

Su Mian’s attention, however, was entirely fixed on Xiao Moyuan’s back, trying to discern any hint of abnormality from his tall, straight posture.

Xiao Moyuan seemed to sense her gaze. He suddenly turned his face slightly, his eyebrow subtly raised, his tone carrying a trace of his usual, slightly mocking inquiry. “Why are you looking at me? Is the answer written on my face?”

‘This reaction was too normal.’

‘So normal that it made Su Mian even more uneasy.’

‘Could it be that he really didn’t discover anything last night?’

‘Perhaps he simply, for some unknown reason, kindly escorted a drunken classmate home.’

“My… my roommate said probably going to KTV, escape rooms, or haunted houses, something like that.” Su Mian forced herself to avert her gaze, stammering her answer to Shen Zhixia’s question.

“Haunted houses?”

Shen Zhixia’s eyes instantly lit up, as if she had heard excellent news, her tone becoming several shades lighter. “Haunted houses sound great! I’ve never been to one.”

She immediately turned to Xiao Moyuan, her voice softening with a hint of dependence. “Moyuan, let’s team up then. If I get scared, you can’t leave me behind.”

Xiao Moyuan looked straight ahead, giving a faint “Mm” in response.

Listening to the two of them so naturally forming a team, a faint pang of sourness inevitably arose in Su Mian’s heart. But at this moment, that jealousy was far less important than uncovering the truth.

Throughout the entire morning’s classes, she remained distracted, her gaze constantly fixed on Xiao Moyuan’s back.

The bell finally rang, signaling the end of class.

Shen Zhixia, as usual, packed her things, ready to invite Xiao Moyuan to walk with her.

Just before she could speak, Su Mian mustered the greatest courage of her life, her voice carrying an almost imperceptible tremor, and interrupted them. “Excuse me, Zhixia… I… I have something I want to talk to Xiao Moyuan about… privately.”

Shen Zhixia was visibly startled, her gaze flitting between Su Mian and Xiao Moyuan, a flicker of surprise crossing her face.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Moyuan paused his movements, then calmly told Shen Zhixia, “Then I won’t walk with you today.”

With that, he picked up his book and walked straight out of the classroom.

As he passed Su Mian, who was still standing rooted to the spot, his footsteps didn’t falter. He simply tossed out a word of urging, devoid of emotion, “Why are you still standing there? Don’t you have something to tell me?”

Su Mian, as if waking from a dream, quickly lowered her head and stumbled after him.

Shen Zhixia stood in place, watching their figures leave one after the other, her brow subtly furrowed. She murmured to herself, “What’s going on with those two…?”

The flow of people in the teaching building’s corridor gradually thinned. Su Mian trailed half a step behind Xiao Moyuan, so nervous that her palms were sweating.

The two walked in silence for a while, until there was no one else around. Only then did Su Mian take a deep breath, speaking in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, “Um… yesterday… thank you for taking me home.”

Xiao Moyuan’s steps didn’t falter. His profile was cold and stern. He didn’t respond to her thanks; instead, he posed a crucial question, his tone flat yet carrying an unavoidable scrutiny. “How do you have my phone number?”

“!!!”

Su Mian’s heart rate instantly soared to its peak. ‘Brain! Work faster! Find a reason!’

Under immense pressure, her CPU almost burned out, and an incredibly clumsy excuse blurted out. “I… I used to find you annoying, didn’t I? So… so I once asked the class advisor for your number… thinking… thinking I’d find an opportunity to prank you…”

Her voice grew softer and softer, utterly lacking in conviction.

Xiao Moyuan finally stopped, turning around to look down at her. A faint, almost imperceptible smile seemed to flit across his deep eyes, but it quickly returned to calm.

“No wonder,” he said slowly, his tone suggesting understanding. “I did receive a few inexplicable harassment calls and blank text messages before.”

Su Mian braced herself, seizing the opportunity. “Yes… that was all me…”

She cautiously raised her eyes, continuing to probe the core issue. “I know you were drunk… so, I accidentally called your number…”

Xiao Moyuan’s tone betrayed no emotion.

“Then… then why did you come to pick me up?”

This was the part Su Mian found most baffling. Given Xiao Moyuan’s usual attitude towards her, it would be a miracle if he didn’t kick her while she was down. Why would he be kind enough to personally pick up a drunk ‘love rival’?

Xiao Moyuan leaned in slightly, his gaze falling on her earlobes, which were faintly red from tension. A meaningful curve played on his lips, and his tone was laced with a hint of playfulness.

“Because some idiot was crying and shouting on the phone, saying they were about to be ‘picked up’ by someone, begging me to save them.”

Hiss—!

Su Mian’s face instantly flushed crimson, even her neck turning a vivid red. She wished she could find a crack in the ground and disappear into it on the spot.

‘She actually… actually embarrassed herself so much yesterday?!’

Overwhelmed with shame, she almost buried her face in her chest, her voice so faint it was barely audible. “Then… then with that kind of person… you… you shouldn’t have bothered with them.”

Xiao Moyuan chuckled softly. He leaned in even closer, his warm breath almost brushing her ear, and in a near whisper, with a hint of malicious amusement, he enunciated each word: “Heh heh, I originally had no intention of bothering.

But that person threatened me, saying that if I didn’t go pick them up, they would exaggerate and spread rumors everywhere about how we once… slept together.

Tell me…” He deliberately paused, enjoying Su Mian’s face instantly paling then rapidly flushing crimson. “Could I not go pick up that person?”

Su Mian was utterly petrified, her mind a blank, only the words “slept together” echoing wildly in her head.

‘She actually… told Xiao Moyuan that yesterday?!’

‘It’s over… it’s all over… social death wasn’t enough to describe how she felt at this moment.’

She truly wanted to travel back to last night and slap her drunken self twice!

‘Su Mian, Su Mian, you clearly know you’re a bad drunk and talk nonsense after drinking, so why can’t you control that mouth of yours!’

However, amidst the extreme shame and panic, a thought suddenly surfaced.

‘If Xiao Moyuan only came because of that ‘threat,’ then perhaps he didn’t see the women’s clothes in the living room?’

‘Maybe he just dropped her off at the door and left?’

Holding onto this last sliver of hope, her voice trembled uncontrollably as she made a final confirmation. “Then… after you took me home… did you… also cover me with a blanket?”

Xiao Moyuan straightened up, resuming his aloof and indifferent demeanor. He quirked the corner of his mouth, his tone laced with undisguised disdain. “You sure dream big.

I dumped you at the door, confirmed you could open it and crawl inside yourself, then I left.”

Su Mian let out a huge sigh of relief, her legs feeling somewhat weak.

So… that was it. She opened the door herself, and got into bed herself.

Those secrets, presumably, had not been exposed.

A tremendous sense of relief washed over her, almost overwhelming her nerves.

“Thank you, thank you…” She lowered her head, not daring to look at Xiao Moyuan again, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.

Xiao Moyuan gazed deeply at her, his eyes complex and unreadable. Finally, he simply said, “Don’t drink so much in the future. Not every time will there be an idiot… someone to pick you up.”

With that, he turned and left with long strides.

Su Mian stood alone for a long while, only then feeling as though she had truly come back to life.

The exhaustion of surviving a disaster intertwined with the lingering shame.

She raised her hand and vigorously patted her still-burning cheeks.

“Su Mian, if you drink again, you’re a dog!” she vowed through gritted teeth in her heart.

However, she completely failed to notice that Xiao Moyuan, as he turned to leave, a faint, deeply pleased curve played on his lips, hidden from her view.

It was truly amusing to tease this easily startled, self-proclaimed clever little fox. Let her continue to fret on the edge of ‘exposed’ and ‘not exposed.’ That, after all, was far more interesting, wasn’t it?