Chapter 390: She’s Doing It Again!

Chapter 390: She’s Doing It Again!

Wu Chen held An Menglan up, his expression faintly knowing.

Leaning on him, she put on her sunglasses and her mask.

Time to leave.

He helped her out of the private room. A-Li was waiting outside. Seeing his boss so drunk and Wu Chen already supporting her, he didn’t reach out to help.

As they walked, An Menglan kept whispering to Wu Chen.

Her voice was muffled by the mask, but he could just make it out.

“Mr. Wu, tell me… if the paparazzi photograph us again today, and they catch you holding me up like this… what would happen?” she asked.

“Nothing would happen,” Wu Chen said.

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“You’re so capable, Mr. Wu. It’s like you’re not afraid of anything.” She wobbled a little as she walked, her head tilted toward him.

There was something odd in her tone, almost as if she were teasing him.

“Looks like you really are drunk today, Miss An,” Wu Chen said, glancing at her with a smile.

“I’m all right. I did have a bit too much, but… I’m all right!” she said.

It was just idle chatter.

But Wu Chen could tell something about her was off.

Downstairs.

Into the car.

They waited briefly for Liu Jing, who had gone to settle the bill, to come out and get in too.

They set off.

In the car, An Menglan took off her mask. Still looking tipsy, she chatted with Wu Chen about this and that. Her speech was perfectly coherent; only her tone and manner were heavy with drink.

Eight or nine minutes later.

They reached the hotel.

The Donghai Nabohao Grand Hotel was, naturally, a luxury five-star establishment. While Wu Chen and An Menglan were eating, Liu Jing had seen to everything. She had booked the room under her own ID, so they could simply swipe the key card and go up.

By rights, An Menglan should have gone back to Song Xuan’s place. She had already moved in, and all her luggage was there.

But.

According to An Menglan, it was too late. She wouldn’t get back until after ten, and stumbling in drunk might disturb Song Xuan.

Besides.

She and Wu Chen hadn’t finished talking, and that would be awkward at Song Xuan’s.

Her reasons were perfectly sound, and saying something like that suited her easygoing nature. Besides, there no longer seemed much need for the two of them to worry about appearances. Last time they had stayed in the same presidential suite.

Once something had happened a first time, a second time was no longer taboo.

After all, they were only going to talk.

The thirty-third floor.

The presidential suite.

The moment they arrived, An Menglan opened more wine. She seemed in far better shape than when they’d left the restaurant, much more sober, much steadier on her feet.

The suite was enormous. Besides two bedrooms, it even had a piano room.

Liu Jing had chosen this suite precisely for the piano room.

An Menglan had specifically told her to beforehand.

Before long, it was past ten.

Soft, unhurried piano music drifted through the suite. In the open piano room, Wu Chen’s fingers moved over the keys, playing something An Menglan had never heard before. Another Wu Chen original, a pure piano piece.

She sat on a tall stool beside the piano, wineglass in hand, a tipsy smile on her face, eyes closed, swaying gently to the music.

She looked as if she were savoring every moment.

For a woman who loved both music and wine, the intoxication she felt just then was beyond most people’s understanding.

At last.

The piece ended.

“Wow!” An Menglan opened her eyes, nodding and shaking her head at once in sheer admiration. “Mr. Wu, you really are a great musician! You can just sit down and play something this moving… Why didn’t we meet sooner?”

She rose with her glass and picked up the other one from the counter.

His. Still half full.

She walked over, handed it to him, and raised her own.

They clinked.

And drank.

Wu Chen took only a sip. An Menglan tipped her head back and drained hers.

“Keep drinking like that and you’ll be out cold,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Will I?” She pressed her lips into a tipsy smile, went back to her seat, and leaned slightly to one side, resting her chin lightly on her fingertips in an elegant pose. Looking at him, she smiled again. “Oh, right, Mr. Wu. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you…”

“What?” Wu Chen asked.

“About the night before last.” She smiled, and something subtle showed on her flushed cheeks. “I… I don’t really remember how I got back to my room. I drank so much that night. I can’t remember whether we… I mean… when I woke up, I wasn’t wearing anything…”

“I took you back to your room. Then I called Assistant Liu and had her look after you…” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Oh, so that’s what happened…” She looked a little surprised.

She wasn’t surprised at all.

She already knew. Liu Jing had been the one who undressed her that night.

Earlier today, before Wu Chen reached the restaurant, she and Liu Jing had been talking about him. They had started with how the negotiation with Peng Wei had turned out. An Menglan was trying to guess how Wu Chen had pulled it off, and as they talked it through, Liu Jing had brought up the night before last.

Liu Jing had said what a perfect gentleman Wu Chen was, and so on.

She thought very highly of him.

Hearing that, An Menglan’s feelings had turned complicated all at once. First relief, and then that strange feeling crept back. She knew now that nothing had happened between them that night. She had kissed him, true, and that alone was a secret she could never tell anyone. But the “worst-case scenario” she had pictured hadn’t happened.

Looked at the other way around, though, it left her feeling… strangely hollow.

She had braced herself for it, imagined what might come next, prepared herself for the consequences, and then it turned out nothing had happened at all.

It left an emptiness.

An Menglan didn’t even know what she was thinking.

She only knew that she had kissed him first, so even if something had happened that night, it wouldn’t have been his fault. The woman had made the first move, and Wu Chen was hardly the faithful type.

And yet he simply… It felt as though she had given him an opening and he hadn’t wanted it.

She couldn’t understand why her thoughts were in such a tangle. All she could do was put it down to the overwhelming pull of his musical gift.

And so.

She had decided to have another long, proper talk with him tonight.

That was why they had come to a hotel again, to talk about music and drink.

It had been her idea.

Still, she hadn’t planned on anything happening tonight. Wu Chen was a “gentleman,” wasn’t he? Then nothing would happen. What she didn’t want to admit was the trace of defiance in her. Part of her wanted to… test whether he really was that much of a gentleman.

“You’re quite the gentleman, Mr. Wu.” She gave him a slightly surprised, tipsy smile.

“I suppose so.” Wu Chen smiled.

“Play another one, please? I want to be your little fangirl.” As she spoke, she set down her glass and pressed her palms together, ready to applaud.

Drunk, An Menglan had a rather funny side.

More than that, they had grown much more familiar. They had talked about so much. They had known each other only a few days, yet it felt like far longer. She had started joking with him, especially when she’d been drinking.

Soon.

Another lovely melody filled the suite.

She poured herself more wine, rose with the glass, and stood a little behind him and to one side, eyes closed, listening and swaying gently. Now and then she lifted a hand and moved it with the rhythm, still utterly absorbed.

Another melody she had never heard.

And once again, so moving.

Eight or nine minutes later.

The piece came to its close.

Eyes still shut, An Menglan drew a deep breath. That indescribable feeling welled up in her again. A talent like this brought her back to the same question…

Why hadn’t she met him sooner?

“A toast to you, Mr. Wu!” She opened her eyes and raised her glass to him.

Wu Chen picked up his glass and touched it to hers.

She drained hers again.

Then she started toward the side of the piano to sit down.

Two steps in, she stumbled. This time she really had drunk too much. Wu Chen was as quick as before and caught her, and having truly lost her balance, she ended up half sitting in his arms.

“Careful,” he said softly.

She had meant to push herself up, but she turned her head to look at him and found his face only inches from hers.

She paused.

Her gaze held still.

Then—

Thump.

The wineglass dropped from her hand onto the carpet. It didn’t break.

She had let go of it. She had let the glass fall, taken his face in both hands, leaned in—

and kissed him.

She lost herself in it.

One arm slowly curled around his neck. The other wrapped around his back.

She couldn’t hold herself back.

She was doing it again.

And this time, unlike the last, she didn’t push him away.

As for Wu Chen—

he wasn’t about to let the same unfinished ending happen twice.