Chapter 135: The Flames of Gossip Burn Bright

Chapter 135: The Flames of Gossip Burn Bright

Mu Qianqian asked so bluntly because something had come back to her.

Days ago, on the night they met, she and Wu Chen had been talking in the bar. Listening to him brag about his story of being trapped in a loop of the same day, she had tried to catch him out in the lie by asking whether he had slept with Su Qingying.

He said he had.

He had even rated Su Qingying’s looks a 9.5, and said that in all of Donghai the women whose beauty could stand beside hers could be counted on one hand—and then said Su Qingying had some kind of weakness.

When Mu Qianqian pressed, he would say no more.

A great deal had happened between them afterward, but of that story she had not believed a single word. Reliving one day for a thousand years? She had already exposed the lie.

Even now, remembering it again, she still did not believe the loop story.

But the part about sleeping with Su Qingying—that, she now felt, might well be true.

The last time she came to Wu Chen’s apartment, the place had been a mess. This time, from the moment she stepped in, she had noticed it was cleaned and spotless. The dirty clothes that had been strewn about were washed and hanging on the balcony. Even the sheets had been washed and hung on a temporary rack in the living room.

She had not thought much of it.

Her head had been full of her own troubles. She simply assumed Wu Chen had gotten around to tidying up, or hired a cleaning service.

Until Su Qingying appeared.

In that subtle, bizarre atmosphere, Su Qingying had gone first to the kitchen to set down the bags, then to the bedroom to change, and on coming out had gone straight to the balcony for the laundry—for all the world as though she had come home. So practiced about it that Mu Qianqian began to feel Su Qingying was the one who had washed those clothes in the first place.

She even took down the boxer briefs without hesitating, holding them in her hands without the faintest distaste.

Friends?

Friends did not behave like this.

At the question, Su Qingying’s raised hand paused on the hanger. Then she lowered it.

In fact, she had been waiting for Mu Qianqian to ask. There were things she could not raise first. Her relationship with Wu Chen was still a secret, and until she knew Mu Qianqian’s situation she absolutely could not expose it.

But!

She could tell perfectly well that there had to be something between Mu Qianqian and Wu Chen. A girl visiting a male friend’s home did not shower first, put on his robe, and leave her own clothes strewn about. That was not normal.

Standing on the balcony, Su Qingying paused, then turned to look at Mu Qianqian in the living room—and instead of answering, asked a question of her own.

“What about you?”

Mu Qianqian had asked whether she had slept with Wu Chen.

Su Qingying’s answer was: What about you?

She had not admitted it.

Nor had she denied it.

Mu Qianqian was stunned.

It was true.

It was actually true.

The daughter of Donghai’s richest man. Donghai’s foremost heiress. The woman everyone acknowledged as Donghai’s most perfect, its number-one beauty.

She was Wu Chen’s woman.

Mu Qianqian stood there dumbstruck, saying nothing.

“What about you?” Su Qingying asked again, and went on, “When did you and Wu Chen…?”

There seemed to be more inside the question than the words themselves.

Su Qingying had never looked into whether Wu Chen had other women, or how many. She did not much mind.

Because what she had with Wu Chen was not an ordinary relationship between a man and a woman to begin with.

Under those terms, what she would mind was anyone who made her feel threatened.

Put plainly, Mu Qianqian was not qualified to make her feel threatened.

She was a pretty young girl, nothing more.

At present, only Li Ruobing could make Su Qingying feel threatened—could make her fear that Wu Chen might be taken from her.

She had once mistaken Li Ruobing for the same kind of person she was. The misunderstanding had since been cleared up, but in the course of it she had discovered that even a woman as strong, as domineering, as capable and as beautiful as Li Ruobing could not take the lead in anything when she stood before Wu Chen.

And even now, nothing definite had happened between Li Ruobing and Wu Chen. Their being a couple was a fiction.

Certain feelings of Li Ruobing’s toward Wu Chen—those, Su Qingying could sense.

But!

She could also tell that even a woman as formidable as Li Ruobing, if she truly became Wu Chen’s woman, would in the end have to bow her head to him.

How powerful Wu Chen really was, Su Qingying could not imagine. But she had tasted enough of it herself.

So perhaps there was not much worth worrying about. Wary as she remained of Li Ruobing, she felt little hostility toward her. They got along quite well, in fact.

“When… well… a few days ago,” Mu Qianqian answered, still dazed.

She admitted it outright.

She had not recovered yet.

“A few days ago?” Su Qingying repeated. She thought for a moment, then asked, “Older sister?”

Mu Qianqian was lost again.

“What… older sister?” she said. She did not understand—just as Li Ruobing had not understood before.

Su Qingying was obviously the elder!

She was only a few months older than Li Ruobing, but nearly ten years older than Mu Qianqian.

Beside Su Qingying, Mu Qianqian truly was a little girl.

Come to that, there was nothing especially off about Wu Chen taking up with a girl this young—because Wu Chen was young himself. He was only twenty-two, sitting almost exactly in the middle of the gap between the two women. Measured from Wu Chen’s age, Su Qingying was not too old and Mu Qianqian was not too young.

Mu Qianqian did not understand “older sister,” and Su Qingying understood everything.

“Sit down. I’ll bring in the clothes and the sheets…” she said, and turned back to the laundry.

She said nothing further. Mu Qianqian now knew about the relationship that was still meant to be secret, but it hardly mattered. So long as Mu Qianqian had that kind of connection with Wu Chen too, they need only wait for him to come back. He would certainly handle her.

Su Qingying stopped talking and busied herself.

Mu Qianqian, however, had a head full of questions.

She had even forgotten the troubles that had been tormenting her all day.

The flames of gossip were catching in her heart, and burning higher.

How could it possibly—Su Qingying was Wu Chen’s woman? Really?

The more she thought, the more excited she grew. She had the feeling of standing on the verge of some earth-shaking secret. She hurried onto the balcony and said, “Miss Su, let me help you.”

She started taking down the laundry alongside her, and before Su Qingying could even demur, asked, “Miss Su, when did you and Wu Chen start? Have you been keeping it a secret? And—”

She had so many questions.

More than half an hour later, Wu Chen finally pulled up outside his building.

He should have been back sooner, but it was past five in the afternoon and rush hour had long since begun. He got caught in traffic. He knew the routes that avoided it, but the distance was short enough that a long detour would have cost more time than it saved, so he did not bother.

Upstairs.

Key in the lock.

He had the door open and one foot inside when he stopped.

He stood there, arrested.

He was looking at an extraordinarily bizarre scene.

What in the world was going on in his apartment?