Chapter 391: An Menglan, Have You No Shame?!

Chapter 391: An Menglan, Have You No Shame?!

People are usually bolder after drinking than they are sober.

In truth, An Menglan herself couldn’t make out what she really wanted.

She even felt that if Li Ruobing had never said those things to her in the first place, she might never have paid such close attention to Wu Chen’s every move.

The more she watched, the more she cared, and the more she learned about him.

She kept coming back to Li Ruobing’s warning, to their wager, to what Li Ruobing had said about Wu Chen’s charm.

And she kept wondering whether something would happen between her and Wu Chen in the end.

Some things don’t hold up well against too much imagining. The more she thought about it, the more acceptable it became.

Of course, for something like that to happen with An Menglan, the man had to be exceptional.

She had been single for twenty-six years, and she was at an age when her hormones ran high.

The alcohol only stoked her feelings.

After that, there was no stopping it.

—

A new day.

July 28, 2020.

At seven sharp, Wu Chen woke briefly, then soon sank back into a deep sleep.

They hadn’t really gotten to sleep until very late.

Time slipped by.

It was past eight.

Still asleep, An Menglan rolled over and found herself blocked by something. She couldn’t turn any farther. And she was certainly not in the habit of sleeping with a stuffed toy.

She opened her eyes.

She stared blearily at the ceiling, then slowly turned her head.

Her eyes flew wide.

Wu Chen lay beside her, fast asleep, on his side and facing her, his left arm tucked under her neck.

Shock was written all over her face.

She lay frozen as the previous night came back to her in a flood.

Her mind was full of images.

And the sight of him lying there brought back even more.

When she had recovered a little, she slowly turned her head back, then very carefully lifted the blanket and looked beneath it.

She stared for about ten seconds before slowly lowering it again.

Sure enough. Everything that could happen had happened.

Her face went through a dozen colors as she lay motionless for a long time. At last she moved. Holding the blanket, she slowly sat up and inched herself away.

She soon managed to slip free without waking him.

She turned, sat on the edge of the bed, and carefully put on her slippers.

She padded silently toward the bathroom.

Two steps in, her brows drew together and her hand went instinctively to a nearby chair for support.

She paused.

Bearing the discomfort, she went on toward the bathroom, slowly, without a sound. She went into the en suite bathroom and eased the door shut behind her.

She looked in the mirror.

There were many marks on her body.

Looking at herself, she remembered so much more.

Her face went red.

She could hardly believe she had gone along with him and done this, and that, and all of that. Had she actually been even more proactive than he was?

And they hadn’t used any protection.

She could get pregnant, couldn’t she?

She stood before the mirror for a full five minutes.

At last she moved.

She rinsed off first, then put on the hotel’s white bathrobe.

Belt tied, she crept to the bathroom door, opened it a crack, and peered out. Only once she was sure he was still sound asleep did she push it open and step out.

The bedroom door was open.

She went straight out of the bedroom.

The living room.

The suite’s living room wasn’t just large but lavish, with fine ornaments everywhere.

Now some of those ornaments were in disarray.

Heaven knew how they’d been knocked over.

She walked through the rooms, looking and remembering. In the piano room, she found her dress…

A few minutes later, having made a full circuit of the suite, she came back to the living room and sat down on the sofa.

She began to “reflect” on herself.

How on earth had she done something like that?

She could swear to it.

She had only meant to test him. She hadn’t even planned to kiss him again last night. She hadn’t been afraid of anything happening if she drank too much, because she knew that as long as she didn’t make the first move, he wouldn’t do anything to her.

But last night, she had made the first move.

She was even beginning to doubt herself.

Was she really the kind of wicked woman who went around seducing other women’s boyfriends?

“An Menglan, have you no shame…” she muttered, sitting on the sofa with her head tipped back and her face buried in her hands.

What she didn’t know was that a woman sixteen years her senior had once said those very words too.

She couldn’t come to terms with it.

And the person filling her mind just then wasn’t Wu Chen.

It was Li Ruobing.

If there were no Li Ruobing, An Menglan felt, she and Wu Chen would probably have ended up together quite naturally by now.

As it was…

she didn’t even know how to face him.

And if Li Ruobing found out, how was she supposed to face Li Ruobing?

All the pressure came from Li Ruobing.

However.

She had actually felt this very same pressure the morning before last, when she had mistakenly believed something had happened between them.

In other words, this was the second time she had felt it.

And her capacity to bear it had grown enormously.

Without her noticing, it had gone past nine.

At last she worked it through. Or rather, decided what she was going to do.

She pulled herself together, picked up the phone she’d found earlier in the piano room, and made a call.

A minute later.

The instant the knock came, An Menglan, already waiting by the door, opened it.

It was Liu Jing. An Menglan had called her over.

She pulled Liu Jing inside, shut the door quickly, and put a finger to her lips: shh. Keep your voice down. She looked thoroughly furtive.

Liu Jing blinked at her, baffled.

An Menglan didn’t let her go any farther in. The two of them stayed in the entryway.

“Sister Jing, I need you to… buy something for me.” An Menglan pressed her lips together as she said it, her eyes distinctly evasive.

“Buy what?” Liu Jing asked, a little puzzled.

She found the whole thing odd. If An Menglan needed something bought, she could have just said so on the phone. Why insist on telling her in person?

“Just… something women use.” An Menglan was being very roundabout. She could barely get it out.

“Oh… sanitary pads.” Liu Jing nodded as if she understood, then frowned. “Wait, Boss, doesn’t your period usually come mid-month?”

“Not that.” An Menglan pressed her lips together again.

“Then what?” Liu Jing blinked.

“It’s…” An Menglan hesitated and hesitated, then seemed to steel herself. She leaned in quickly and whispered something in Liu Jing’s ear.

Then she straightened at once, lifted a hand to smooth her hair, and tried to look as natural as possible.

She didn’t look natural in the slightest.

Liu Jing’s eyes had gone huge.

She was damn well stunned.

At first she thought she must have misheard, but An Menglan’s face made it plain she hadn’t.

An Menglan wanted her to buy emergency contraception.

“Boss… Boss, you, you, you and… Mr. Wu, last night?” Liu Jing looked utterly thunderstruck. She could hardly string the words together. She raised a finger to point, then gestured toward the inner rooms of the suite.

“Oh, don’t ask! Just go!” An Menglan cut her off in a low voice, color rising in her cheeks.

Liu Jing still wore a look of pure shock.

Liu Jing knew nothing about the wager, it should be said. But she did know that Wu Chen had a girlfriend.

An Menglan trusted Liu Jing completely.

As her personal assistant, Liu Jing knew more about her daily life than anyone.

That was why An Menglan entrusted her with an “important mission” like this.

There was no way she could go and buy it herself. Embarrassment was one reason. More importantly, given who she was, even buying medicine bundled up from head to toe carried a risk.

Her figure, her voice, everything else that marked her out… If she ran into a die-hard fan, she would be recognized even wrapped up like a zongzi.

And she wasn’t sure whether Li Ruobing had people watching her.

With the kind of power the Li siblings wielded in Donghai, keeping an eye on her would be all too easy.

“Wear a mask, and go somewhere farther away to buy it. And pick up a set of clothes for me on the way back. Remember…” An Menglan gave her a few more instructions.

A few minutes later.

Liu Jing left on her errand.

An Menglan went back to the bedroom.

She tiptoed over to the window, untied the bathrobe and dropped it on a chair, then lifted the blanket, slipped in, and eased herself carefully toward the middle of the bed.

She wanted everything to look “just as it had been.”

But just then, Wu Chen stirred.

He was waking up.

Without hesitating, she settled herself into the crook of his arm.

Holding her, Wu Chen shifted slightly and rolled from his side onto his back. His lashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes.

He was awake.

She lay against him, head tilted slightly back, looking up at him.

He blinked at the ceiling, then lowered his gaze to her.

Their eyes met.