Chapter 19

Cheng Li got into the car, and her entire body relaxed. The exhaustion and weariness hit her all at once.

Within seconds, her head tilted against the backrest of the seat, and she closed her eyes.

“Yes, I’ve picked her up. She seems to have had quite a bit to drink.”

She didn’t know how much time had passed when she vaguely heard the driver’s low voice over the phone while she leaned against the seat.

Cheng Li forced her eyes open.

The driver had just ended the call. Hearing movement from the back seat, he immediately asked, “Madam, are you thirsty? There’s bottled water behind you—please feel free to take one.”

Cheng Li rubbed her forehead, which felt as if it was being pierced by needles, the pain sharp and relentless.

“Thank you.”

“It’s my duty,” the driver said with a smile but couldn’t help adding a reminder. “Madam, if you have another gathering like this, please notify me to pick you up. It’s too dangerous otherwise.”

Earlier, when he arrived at the entrance, he saw Cheng Li surrounded by a group of men.

Fortunately, Mr. Rong wasn’t present to witness that scene.

Cheng Li twisted the cap off the bottle and took several gulps of water, quelling the burning sensation in her chest. With her eyes half-closed, she murmured, “Please don’t call me Madam anymore. Just call me Cheng Li.”

The driver, who appeared to be in his forties, smiled warmly. “Calling you Madam is entirely appropriate.”

The driver, despite his brief time outside the car earlier, had observed everything keenly.

When he addressed her as “Madam,” the man standing closest to Cheng Li had looked utterly stunned.

The driver could understand his reaction.

After all, even when he personally drove these two to register their marriage, he found it hard to believe that Mr. Rong, typically so composed and rational, would do something as impulsive as a flash marriage.

Hearing the driver’s words, an image of Xu Jiheng’s disbelieving face flashed through Cheng Li’s mind.

She suddenly let out a soft laugh.

This form of address wasn’t bad at all.

Over half an hour later, the car pulled up at the entrance to Cheng Li’s apartment complex.

The driver noticed her unsteady steps and said worriedly, “Should I escort you to your door? It’s quite dark inside the complex.”

It was already past 10 p.m., and many of the lights in the complex had been turned off.

Only a few scattered ones remained, making the area appear dim.

Cheng Li waved him off. “Don’t let me delay your trip home. I can manage on my own.”

The driver stood there, watching as she walked into the complex step by step.

When Cheng Li reached her door, she pressed her finger against the fingerprint scanner. For some reason, the lock beeped incessantly but wouldn’t open.

Frustrated, she was about to try again when the door opened from the inside.

Cheng Dingbo, dressed in pajamas and holding a cup of water, appeared to have gotten up for a drink.

“Goodness, how much did you drink?” He quickly pulled her inside upon smelling the strong scent of alcohol and seeing her flushed face.

Finally finding support, Cheng Li’s knees buckled, and she nearly fell.

Luckily, Cheng Dingbo caught her in time and, without delay, helped her to her room. “Where on earth did you drink so much? You reek of alcohol.”

Mrs. Ling, still awake, heard the commotion and got up from bed.

At the bedroom door, she saw Cheng Dingbo helping a drunken Cheng Li toward her room.

“What’s going on?” Mrs. Ling asked, her tone both worried and annoyed as she took in Cheng Li’s disheveled, drunken state.

“Don’t bother questioning her now. Go make some honey water,” Cheng Dingbo said.

Despite her irritation, Mrs. Ling felt bad for her daughter. She hurried to the kitchen to prepare honey water.

When she brought it over, Cheng Li drank it all in one go.

Mrs. Ling handed the empty glass to Cheng Dingbo and immediately started scolding. “Cheng Li, what on earth is this? Where did you drink so much?”

“A company dinner,” Cheng Li replied, half-reclining against the pillows propped up behind her.

Frowning, Cheng Dingbo asked, “Aren’t you in a technical role? Why do you have to attend company dinners?”

“I’m not just in a technical role anymore. I’m part of management now. You get it, right?”

Well, sort of management.

“Management, my foot,” Mrs. Ling snapped. A lifelong educator who had never encountered alcohol at work, she felt both heartache and anger seeing her daughter like this. “I told you to take the civil service exam back then. Wouldn’t that have been easier? Before, you were up earlier than the chickens and slept later than the dogs. And now you’ve added drinking to the mix.”

“Alright, alright,” Cheng Dingbo cut in. “She’s already feeling awful. Just let it go for now.”

“I want to sleep,” Cheng Li mumbled.

“Alright, sleep well,” said Cheng Dingbo, patting her shoulder.

Mrs. Ling opened her mouth to say more but was coaxed and dragged out by Cheng Dingbo.

Once her parents had left, Cheng Li rolled over and lay face-down on the bed.

But after a while, she remembered she hadn’t showered.

Dragging herself up, she took a quick shower at lightning speed, nearly slipping in the bathroom along the way.

After an exhausting round of clumsy movements, she collapsed onto the bed again. Her head still throbbed, and though she felt drained, sleep eluded her.

Cheng Li reached for her phone, plugged in the charger, and opened WeChat.

Staring at the pinned contact, she finally dialed the number.

“Cheng Li?” Rong Qi’s soft voice came through almost instantly.

“I’m home,” Cheng Li muttered. “Just letting you know I’m safe.”

Rong Qi glanced at his watch.

The driver had called him at 10:30 to report that he had successfully picked her up.

Now, nearly an hour and a half later, she was only just checking in.

If he’d waited on her to report her safety, he could’ve flown from Beijing to Shanghai by now.

“Do you have any hangover medicine at home?” Rong Qi asked.

“I had honey water. It was so sweet, so sweet,” Cheng Li replied, her voice slightly slurred, sounding unlike her usual cool tone, almost as if she were whining.

Drunk people always seemed a little different.

Rong Qi chuckled softly on the other end of the line.

“Thank you,” Cheng Li said suddenly in a quiet voice.

“For what?” Rong Qi asked.

“For your car, for your driver,” Cheng Li murmured as she lay on the bed.

Rong Qi was silent.

“I’m so happy today,” Cheng Li said again.

“Why?”

Cheng Li: “I ran into someone I utterly despise, someone I wish would disappear from my life forever. Yet, he keeps showing up. But now, it’s fine—I gave him a hard slap to his face.”

“Hard. Slap.” She repeated the words slowly, her voice fading with each syllable.

Rong Qi, on the other end of the phone, fell silent.

He could roughly guess what had happened.

After a long pause, he said softly, “So you’re only thankful for my car and my driver?”

“Of course, I’m also thankful for you,” Cheng Li replied, her drunken tone rising, carrying a hint of delight. “You’re the best, best person in the whole world.”

Rong Qi chuckled faintly, feeling as though he’d just been handed the proverbial “nice guy card.”

But he didn’t want a nice guy card.

Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window in the highest suite of his Beijing hotel, Rong Qi gazed at the dazzling city lights below. A strange impulse surged within him, stronger than when he first uttered the word “marriage.”

“And do you like this best, best person?” he asked, his voice calm yet filled with anticipation.

Silence stretched between them as he waited patiently.

But in the next moment, regret seized him. Just as he was about to say something to backtrack—

A steady, soft breathing came through the line.

Asleep?

“Cheng Li,” Rong Qi called gently.

But her only response was her deep, even breathing.

Like him?

The best, best person in your words—do you like him?

*

A sharp pain stabbed through her head, pulling her consciousness back. Every inch of her body ached as if she’d been run over by a tank.

Cheng Li groaned, barely opening her eyes.

For the first time, she realized how difficult even the simple act of opening her eyes could be.

She buried her face into her pillow again, unwilling to move.

After a while, she reached out blindly for her phone, searching the pillow and bed but finding nothing.

She extended her hand toward the nightstand but still came up empty.

Frustrated, she tried summoning her phone’s voice assistant, but no response came no matter how many times she called.

Finally, Cheng Li forced her eyes open to search the room. She found her phone lying on the floor, completely powered off.

She plugged it in to charge, waited for it to reboot, and was greeted by the glaring time on the screen: 9:45 AM.

She nearly dropped her phone in shock.

Forget it. She would just request leave later.

If it were only seven-something, she might have scrambled to get ready. But now that it was already this late, she decided to just accept her fate.

Cheng Li sank back into bed and lazily opened WeChat.

The top chat notification caught her eye—a row of gray text under Rong Qi’s avatar: [Voice Call].

She froze. Did she call Rong Qi last night?

When she tapped into the chat, the sight nearly made her faint.

The duration of the call was displayed clearly: 326:45.

Her brain scrambled to calculate—326 minutes equaled five hours and 26 minutes.

She had a five-hour-and-26-minute call with Rong Qi?

The most terrifying part was that she had zero memory of what was said during that call.

Though she was certain they couldn’t have talked the entire time, surely she must have said something at the start?

Cheng Li nervously scratched her head, racking her brain but coming up blank.

Finally, she sent a message:
Cheng Li: [Good morning.]

After some hesitation, she decided to test the waters.

Rong Qi: [Awake now?]

Cheng Li: [I drank too much last night.]

Rong Qi: [I know.]

Though Rong Qi’s reply was typical of his style, it felt oddly distant to Cheng Li, who was already feeling guilty.

She bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed.

Cheng Li: [Uh… I didn’t say anything weird last night, did I?]

This time, Rong Qi didn’t reply immediately.

She watched his typing indicator appear—“Rong Qi is typing…”—and waited anxiously.

Finally, with a faint chime, his reply came through:
Rong Qi: [What counts as weird?]

Weird? Weird?!

Did that mean she’d said so much nonsense that he couldn’t even tell what counted as weird anymore?

Cheng Li’s face turned pale.

She clutched her phone, caught between continuing to ask or pretending none of this ever happened.

Then Rong Qi sent another message:
Rong Qi: [You thanked my car and my driver.]

Cheng Li breathed a small sigh of relief. That wasn’t so bad.

Cheng Li: [Right! If it weren’t for your driver picking me up, I don’t even know how I would’ve gotten home last night.]
Cheng Li: [It was only proper to thank you.]

So, she hadn’t completely lost her mind after drinking.

Good job, Cheng Li! Even drunk, you remained rational, polite, and composed.

But then Rong Qi sent another message:
Rong Qi: [You also said I’m the best, best person in the world.]

What?

Cheng Li froze, a sense of foreboding creeping over her.

Complimenting him wasn’t too out of character for her, but somehow, she had a bad feeling there was more to this.

Her suspicion was confirmed when Rong Qi’s next message arrived:
Rong Qi: [Never mind, nothing else important.]

Never mind?

No way. That sounded so suspicious!

Cheng Li stared at the words “the best, best person in the world”, pondering what might naturally follow such a statement.

Could it be… she confessed?

Cheng Li gasped audibly, feeling as if she were one step closer to the horrifying truth.

You’re the best, best person in the world.

—I like you very much.