Chapter 392: She Won’t Ask

Chapter 392: She Won’t Ask

“Good morning, Miss An.” Wu Chen smiled at the woman in his arms.

“Good morning, Mr. Wu.” She answered with a sweet smile of her own. For some reason, those first words of his made her feel much more at ease.

She had all but mustered every ounce of courage to face him when he woke. She had worried it would be awkward, worried neither of them would know how to explain things. What attitude would he take? What would he say? How should she respond?

She had even wondered what to do if he kissed her when he woke.

Refuse?

Or go along with it?

They had already slept together. Everything that could happen had happened. A kiss was nothing.

But in her position, even a seemingly “small” choice like this was hard.

Refusing would be terribly awkward. She had been the one who started things last night. It would feel almost as though she’d gotten what she wanted and was now refusing to own it. That would be hard to explain.

Going along with it would mean letting things simply take their course. Did that mean that from today on, she would be stepping into his love life?

Becoming the third woman?

No. Not the third.

More like the fifth or sixth. She didn’t even rank third.

However she looked at it, it was hard.

It had taken her a great deal of effort to make up her mind. She had imagined every possibility and how she would handle each one.

Yet none of them came to pass.

Waking up, Wu Chen didn’t put her in any difficult position at all.

Even “Miss An” made her feel comfortable and relieved.

She had been so afraid he would call her “darling.” Working out how to answer that would have been yet another problem.

“When did you wake up?” Wu Chen asked.

“Not long ago,” she said. There was something faintly forced in the way she held his gaze. She was lying naked in his arms, after all. Of course she felt shy.

“What time is it?” Wu Chen reached back and picked up the clock from the bedside table.

He checked it, then put it back.

9:17 a.m.

“We should get up.” He turned to her again. “Do you want to sleep a little longer, Miss An?”

“N-no.” A flicker of panic crossed her eyes.

Because he had just thrown her plan into complete disarray.

When couples woke up together in the morning, weren’t they supposed to… do certain things?

That was how it always went on TV.

So why was he just… getting up?

Not even a little move?

Not only did that make all her carefully prepared responses useless, it threw her “plan” off course.

She could perfectly well have stayed up instead of coming back to lie down.

The reason she had come back was that she had already made up her mind to let something happen between them again.

She didn’t feel she’d be losing out.

If anything, she felt that getting drunk and doing all that with him last night without even remembering what it felt like meant her first time had simply slipped away.

That was the real loss.

So she had decided she could let it happen again while fully sober.

And that was the first step of her plan.

Without that step, the whole plan fell apart.

She shifted aside. Seeing that he really was sitting straight up, she deliberated for roughly “one second,” then sat up too.

“Hey!” she called.

“Hm?” Wu Chen turned to look at her.

She leaned straight in and kissed him.

And… lost herself in it more and more.

It was the first time she had ever kissed a man while completely sober.

It was even better than she had imagined.

Mostly, of course, because apart from the headache of his having a girlfriend, everything about him satisfied her. His musical gift alone had drawn her in deeply.

She had expected to feel nervous after kissing him.

Instead, it was the opposite.

She wasn’t nervous at all. She felt relaxed.

Body and mind, she felt good.

Everything that had happened the night before happened all over again.

Half an hour later.

Wu Chen carried her into the bathroom in his arms.

A shower. Brushing their teeth.

There was a bathtub, but filling it would take too long, so they simply showered in the stall.

Before long.

Water rushed down around them.

They stood facing each other, both covered in suds. An Menglan’s palm traced circles over his chest as she worked up a lather for him.

“Mr. Wu.” Her gaze traveled over him, then rose to meet his eyes.

She had adjusted enough now to look at him calmly.

“What is it?” he asked with a smile.

“About us…” She paused, pressed her lips together, then smiled. “Don’t tell Miss Li, all right?”

She hadn’t come up with anything better.

All she could do was hope he wouldn’t tell.

Then she would simply deny it to the end.

It really was the only option she had.

Part of the reason she had wanted it to happen while she was sober wasn’t only to make her first time complete. It was also to… get on his good side.

In a moment like this, he might agree to what she asked, or at least favor her a little and keep it from Li Ruobing.

She even felt she was being a bit “wicked,” scheming in a way she normally never would.

But… there was nothing else she could do.

For a woman with moral standards as high as hers, making a decision like this had taken an enormous amount of resolve.

Wu Chen’s smile turned subtle. He didn’t know what she’d been doing before he woke, but he could read her state of mind well enough.

“Ruobing won’t ask,” he said with a smile.

“She won’t ask? Why not?” Her hand stilled on his chest. She looked into his eyes.

“She can’t be bothered to ask. But she might come to you directly,” he said.

“Come to me directly?” Her expression turned subtle too.

Then that made it easy.

She would just deny it.

Shameless as that was, she was genuinely afraid of Li Ruobing.

It was the fear of someone who knew she was in the wrong.

She smiled, her gaze moving over his face. Then she spread her arms, looped them around his neck, leaned in, and kissed him again.

Only a kiss, this time.

A little after ten, An Menglan walked out of the bedroom wrapped in a bath towel.

On the coffee table in the living room lay two sets of new clothes. Liu Jing had brought them. An Menglan didn’t know when; probably while they were in the shower. She had given Liu Jing a key card when she sent her out.

She walked over to the coffee table, glanced across it, and picked up a small paper bag.

Inside was a box of pills.

Exactly what she had asked for.

She put the medicine away first, then called Liu Jing and asked her to book a private room for lunch.

Wu Chen soon came into the living room as well. His clothes weren’t in the bedroom. Things hadn’t started in the bedroom last night, after all, but in the piano room…

They dressed.

An Menglan put on her mask and sunglasses.

They went down together.

She didn’t take his arm.

Outside, in public, she could never show him the slightest intimacy.

Downstairs for lunch.

Liu Jing had booked a private room in the hotel’s Western restaurant.

On the north side of the third floor.

Into the private room.

Order.

Talk.

Eat.

It was already past ten, and by the time they finished it would be past eleven, so the meal could fairly be called lunch.

They had barely exchanged a few words before the conversation turned to music.

They acted as though nothing between them had changed.

That made An Menglan feel especially comfortable, because he put no pressure on her at all.

Halfway through the meal.

“Mm… I’m planning to go back to Modu tonight.” The words felt strange even as she said them.

They left her with a feeling of…

What were they to each other now?

A one-time hookup?

“That soon? Why not rest a day before you go?” Wu Chen looked at her.

“No need. I’m fine.” She knew exactly why he was suggesting a day’s rest.

She was a little sore just now, but getting back to Modu wouldn’t involve much walking. A car from the door, then a flight from the airport.

“When are you planning to come to Modu, Mr. Wu?” she asked. She paused, then added, “I mean, our collaboration, the album recording, there may still be things we’ll need you for. And… didn’t you agree with Peng Wei that you’d come to Modu to set up a company?”

She didn’t even know why she felt the need to explain.

“In a few days, I’d guess…” Wu Chen was saying when—

Ring, ring…

His phone.

He stopped and picked it up. He glanced at the screen, and for an instant his expression went faintly distant. Then a smile spread across his face.

He answered and raised the phone to his ear.

“Mom!”

His mother had called out of the blue.