Chapter 26

Ji Qingyu really wanted to get rid of this guess from her mind. After all, it wasn’t just one night but four nights, which every adult understands. She stopped drinking alcohol and ordered a glass of orange juice with lots of ice, wishing she could chew on the ice to cool down her wandering thoughts. Mao Feifei returned with dreamy eyes, looking like she had been kissing someone for half an hour. Ji Qingyu awkwardly wanted to remind her to check for Helicobacter pylori regularly. But she quickly remembered that she had kissed Feng Chengze the other night. As the boss, he probably had no stomach problems, right? This thought made her laugh at herself. To her now, it was the first kiss with Feng Chengze, but this body probably had countless kisses with him before.

“Do you have plans for the second half of the night?” Chu Ning asked Mao Feifei, resting her face on her hand. She could only be asking her, as everyone knew, married people couldn’t stay out all night, and they didn’t want Feng Chengze to give them death stares.

Mao Feifei looked at her strangely. “I never pick up people at nightclubs. Without a health report, how could I?” Even though she liked to flirt, no one cherished their life more than her.

Chu Ning nodded. “When are we leaving? I know you hate it when I talk about my son, but really, tomorrow is the parent-teacher conference at his school, and I am freaking out—” She glanced at Ji Qingyu with a frustrated look. “You get it, right? I can’t believe it! Meetings every other day, and now I must check homework in the parent group!”

Ji Qingyu felt her pain. “Speaking of which, I need to get home early too. I still have a kindergarten craft assignment to finish.” She felt like pulling her hair out.

Mao Feifei laughed at their misery. “No marriage, no kids, peaceful and happy life. Anyway, I’m already a godmother of two kids. If I die at home, someone will find out.”

When Ji Qingyu was about to express her jealousy, her phone vibrated. It was a message from Feng Chengze: [I’m done here. Do you need a ride?] Thanks to Chen Xiuren’s digging into moments, Feng Chengze knew Ji Qingyu was not drinking milk at the bar.

Ji Qingyu immediately shared her location. Clearly, she wanted to be picked up.

Feng Chengze, in the tea room, saw that he couldn’t get any useful information from his friends—though he came just to catch up with them, he didn’t expect them to change so much, chatting and drinking tea quietly for over an hour. He couldn’t stand this middle-aged vibe and wanted to leave early. Honestly, he understood why his future self would gather less and less. Whether married or not didn’t matter; drinking tea was just boring. He hoped their past activities like golf and bridge hadn’t turned into fishing and gardening.

“Leaving. Let’s meet again next time,” Feng Chengze stood up.

Shao Qin and Chen Xiuren high-fived. “Old Chen, that vintage car is mine.”

Feng Chengze looked at him, puzzled. Why bring up cars out of the blue?

Chen Xiuren smiled. “I bet you’d last two hours today, and Shao Qin said you wouldn’t. He won. By the way, you and Qingyu didn’t have a fight, did you?”

Feng Chengze walked away calmly. He had planned to have a drink tonight and even had his driver wait for him, but he didn’t touch a drop. He opened the car door and gave the address to the driver. Moving from the quiet tea room to the noisy bar felt like returning from another world to the ordinary one.

Assistant Zhang came to the booth to get his car keys and was surprised to find Feng Chengze at the door. Determined to climb the career ladder, he and his girlfriend followed the three women out of the bar.

Feng Chengze stood tall by the car, looking down at his phone. Hearing the noise, he turned his head.

Ji Qingyu asked Chu Ning and Mao Feifei, “Do you need a ride?”

Feng Chengze thought for a few seconds and then walked over to Ji Qingyu.

Mao Feifei waved her hand. “No, I called a driver. Riding with Feng? That’s torture. The Feng Chengze I see is strict, abstinent, composed, and meticulous. But as Ji Qingyu’s best friend, I know some of his private hobbies—I’m not a privacy snooper! It’s just my job, and Ji Qingyu is my benefactor. Sometimes I feel like I’m hiding under their bed.”

Chu Ning also declined. “I’ll take a cab. We don’t live in the same area, so it would be inconvenient for both of us.”

Assistant Zhang greeted Feng Chengze. “Mr. Feng.”

His girlfriend also greeted him. Feng Chengze nodded calmly, his gaze lingering on Ji Qingyu, whose cheeks were slightly flushed from drinking. She was still clear-headed, her eyes moist and smiling, following him to the car. She walked steadily but stumbled slightly, and he quickly supported her arm, not letting go afterward.

Mao Feifei and Chu Ning also headed to the parking lot.

Mao Feifei’s designated driver arrived just in time to give Chu Ning a ride. Only Assistant Zhang and his girlfriend were left, as they lived nearby and didn’t drive.

Assistant Zhang looked at his girlfriend, “Continue strolling or go home?”

“Let’s go to an izakaya?”

They walked hand in hand, and his girlfriend said, “Every time I see your boss, he seems like a…,” she paused, struggling to find the right word, “a very steady man. Have you ever seen him lose his temper?”

Assistant Zhang smiled, “Live long enough, and you’ll see everything.”

He was shocked the first time he saw Mr. Feng lose his composure. That was five years ago in Nan City. He wasn’t sure what exactly happened, but Mr. Feng’s mood was strange those days, like a towering mountain shrouded in mist—dangerous, dark, and deep, but occasionally, a hint of joy would flash across his face, until the eighth evening in Nan City, Mr. Feng had canceled all post-meeting dinners and returned to the hotel early. That day was no different from the previous days. However, less than half an hour after returning to the hotel, Mr. Feng’s face turned as dark as ink. He even asked the front desk to check the surveillance and kept dialing a number, but no one answered. The tall, broad man looked extremely stiff. Now, he guessed that Mrs. Feng had left without saying goodbye. Or, to be bolder, Mr. Feng had been dumped.

…

A Maybach sped through the night. Inside the car, Ji Qingyu had a faint smell of alcohol, and Feng Chengze guessed she hadn’t drunk much.

However…

He hesitated for a few seconds, then lowered the partition between the driver and the back seat, making the back seat darker. Ji Qingyu, who had been wondering how to confirm where she had stayed those four nights, was startled, her eyelashes trembling. She turned her face, “What are you doing?”

“You drank.” Feng Chengze’s gaze was restrained, not lingering on her exposed collarbone as she leaned forward with her elbow on the armrest. She was wearing a fitted dress that outlined her delicate figure. She glanced at him lightly, her gaze like a feather brushing past.

Feng Chengze elegantly crossed his legs and asked in a low voice, “Do you have something to say?”

“Just…,” Ji Qingyu asked softly, “Do those luxury suites you stay in usually have… protection?”

Feng Chengze was stunned for a few seconds, a faint displeasure of being offended on his face, but he still answered calmly, “I haven’t noticed.”

This touched on Ji Qingyu’s blind spot. Over the past five years, she might have stayed in many presidential suites, but in her current memory, she had only stayed in standard king-size rooms in five-star hotels. She didn’t recall seeing any and wasn’t sure if all five-star hotels lacked them. Even if they did have them, it would probably be just one box. How many were in a box? If it was for four nights, would one box be enough?

Feng Chengze saw Ji Qingyu frowning and pursing her lips occasionally. Although he couldn’t guess what she was thinking, he felt inexplicably uneasy, his tone gradually becoming lower, “What’s wrong?”

Ji Qingyu, encouraged by the alcohol and her curiosity about the past, leaned closer and asked, “Can I see your phone?”

She had gone through her delivery orders from the past few years but found nothing useful. What about his? Although they hadn’t been together long, she imagined someone like him wouldn’t ask the hotel butler or front desk to deliver such things, nor would he ask Assistant Zhang to buy them. If he needed them, he would probably buy them himself.

Feng Chengze’s gaze was more scrutinizing than observing. After a moment, he said, “Sure.”

He unlocked his phone and handed it to her.

Ji Qingyu took it reverently, “Thank you.” She wanted to figure this out before telling him; otherwise, it would be embarrassing to speak without confirmation. She didn’t check his WeChat but went straight to the delivery app through a mini-program.

Feng Chengze: “…” He didn’t have the habit of ordering takeout or errands. Just as he was about to tell her not to waste her time, she had already logged in successfully.

Ji Qingyu flipped through past orders, while Feng Chengze had ordered takeout so rarely that it didn’t take long to find an order from five years ago. No, to be precise, it was two orders.

July 13th, 2 AM. A box of condoms, three in a pack.

July 14th at 7 PM. Three boxes.

The address was the suite of that hotel. She was dumbfounded, she was incredulous, she was speechless.

Since she was hanging her head, her hair fell to the sides of her face, covering the phone screen. Seeing her motionless, Feng Chengze asked, “Did you find something?”

Ji Qingyu couldn’t bring himself to say it.

It was too hot to handle; even saying it out loud would get you into trouble.

She can’t possibly say that we might have ended up in bed about a week after I broke up with your brother, over and over again, night after night, five years ago, right? So scary!

She returned the phone to him, bit her lip, looked at him with a complicated expression, and said, “You… look for yourself.”

Feng Chengze took it with confusion and casually glanced at the screen.

Everything seemed to be paused, and he was bewildered for a few seconds. His calm and composed expression cracked and shattered.

“I’ve never bought it.” He said with a strained voice.

Ji Qingyu found it hard to explain.

He really hasn’t bought it now. But this thing must have been used by his body. However, she couldn’t be the only one whose pupils dilated. She gently reminded, “Why don’t you check the order date again?”