Xuan Tianmei woke up in the wee hours of the morning. She felt pain shooting through her pain and a stunning headache. None of that pain could compare though, to the pain she felt in her shoulders. Her next line of thought was to try ma.s.sage her shoulders. That was when she realized her hands had been restrained behind her back. With handcuffs. Xuan Tianmei immediately felt a flood of panic overcome her. Just what had happened last night?"Su Yang," Xuan Tianmei called desperately. The room was pitch dark so she didn"t know where she was or was with her. She immediately thought that Zhu Daniya had carried her off after the party and now wanted to sell her organs to the mafia. Freaked out, she screamed again, "Su Yang!!!"
Xuan Tianmei heard quick shuffling and then the sound of the light coming on. She closed her eyes tightly to avoid the rude a.s.sault of the light. When she opened them again, she saw the figure of a person. A woman. It was Su Yang. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey, you"re awake now." Su Yang said, bent her body till her knees were on the bed and uncuffed Xuan Tianmei. "You must have a bad hangover."
Xuan Tianmei stood up and looked at Su Yang wearily. Her mind tried to understand what was happening, but couldn"t make any sense of it. "What happened?"
"You got drunk last night. Very drunk, you couldn"t seem to control yourself, so I had to cuff you." Su Yang said.
Xuan Tianmei tried to remember and little memories of the previous night came back to her. She got drunk after what even she knew was a few gla.s.ses of drinks. Then, she had gotten very chatty, and insisted on removing her s.h.i.+rt. That was when Su Yang had taken her inside and tried to put her to sleep. She had held on to Su Yang and...
It was then it hit her. She had come on to Su Yang. Fiercely. And Su Yang had gotten the cuffs out of the nightstand and restrained her. "I can"t believe you cuffed me because I touched you."
"You were acting aggressively." Su Yang said.
"I was acting aggressively? I"m your girlfriend. I wanted to be intimate with you. Is there something wrong with that?"
"Yes. You were drunk."
"Okay." Xuan Tianmei sighed. "Okay. That"s fine. But I"m not drunk anymore and I want to be intimate with you."
"Stop it, Xuan Tianmei. You"re being unreasonable."
"I"m being unreasonable? Because I want my girlfriend to have s.e.x with me?"
Su Yang pulled Xuan Tianmei by the neck and kissed her fiercely.
Xuan Tianmei was stunned and struggled for air. She was so suffocated, she didn"t even remember to kiss back. She pulled away from Su Yang and moved backward.
Su Yang stood up and stared at Xuan Tianmei with a strange expression in her eyes.
"What is wrong with you?" Xuan Tianmei screamed angrily at her.
Without another word, Su Yang turned and left the room. Closing the door with a Big Bang.
Xuan Tianmei was angry, confused and sorry. She knew Su Yang got uncomfortable anytime she tried to touch her, but she didn"t know why. It had never mattered before now. But something like this had never happened before. She hadn"t realized the intensity to which Su Yang hated contact until now. But Su Yang had professed her love for her so profoundly the previous night. How can you love someone and not want them to touch you?
With a sigh, she decided she wanted some water and something for her headache. Zombie-like, she stumbled to the kitchen to get some water. As she drank, she heard someone walk in from behind her. She turned around and noticed it was Lu Qihao.
"Hey," Lu Qihao said.
"Hey," she replied. "I didn"t know you were still here."
He nodded. "I decided to pa.s.s the night."
She nodded. "Okay."
Lu Qihao handed her a bottle of aspirin. "For your headache and body pains. Su Yang said it should be fine before breakfast."
Xuan Tianmei took the bottle of medicine and squeezed it in her palm thoughtfully.
Lu Qihao looked at her inquisitively. Then he said, "I"m going to make breakfast a little later. To welcome you to the family. I promise you haven"t tasted anything as good as what I"m gonna cook."
Xuan Tianmei forced a smile. With a sigh, she asked, "Can you be in love with someone, but hate it when they touch you?"
Lu Qihao shook his head and said sympathetically. "Su Yang and I aren"t very close. I don"t understand her or the things she does."
"Oh!" Xuan Tianmei dropped her head in despair.
"Hey, don"t be sad." Lu Qihao held up her chin. "I said I don"t understand her, but I know someone who does."
"Who?"
"Yun Peng. He"s the only person I know who can control her or talk her in and out of something."
"Really?"
"Yes. And that"s because they"ve known each other for a very long time. Longer than I have known either of them."
"But... He seems so cold. When he stared me down last night, I almost melted."
"Don"t worry about it. He"ll be nice to you."
"You think so."
"You"re important to Su Yang. So yes, I think so."
Xuan Tianmei dropped her head again. She wasn"t sure about just how important she was to Su Yang.
"He already left a while ago. But I"ll give you his phone number, okay?"
"Okay." Xuan Tianmei nodded.
Lu Qihao smiled. "Personally, I"m terrified of your girlfriend."
"Really?" Xuan Tianmei raised a brow. "I thought you were a police officer."
"Well, I happen to know how dangerous she is." He continued, "I never knew she could ever let someone into her life again. I don"t know what your problems are. But I know I can a.s.sure you that you are special to her."
Xuan Tianmei looked down again. This time, because Lu Qihao had managed to calm her down.
***
"Are you still not talking to me?" Yun Peng asked Xiao Maiguo. They were both seated in Yun Peng"s car, on their way to the Xiao Dongyuan group of companies.
Xiao Maiguo said nothing.
Yun Peng sighed. "I didn"t know you were coming back yesterday. If I did, I would"ve returned earlier."
Xiao Maiguo sighed and asked snippily. "Who were you out with?" Those were the first words he had spoken to Yun Peng since he returned home.
"I told you before that I was going out with friends."
"What friends are these that I"m not allowed to meet?"
Yun Peng threw Xiao Maiguo a glance. "We"ve talked about this before. You"ll meet my friends when the time is right."
"We"ve been dating for over two years, Yun Peng. When will the time be right? In ten years" time?"
Yun Peng shook his head. "Let"s just stop talking about this."
"I"m sorry. But as long as I haven"t met your friends, you can"t stop me from thinking you"re going to meet some other man when you go out."
"Xiao Maiguo." Yun Peng said with a sigh.
"I wonder how many times you didn"t return home when I wasn"t around."
Yun Peng shook his head. He was tired of being accused when he had done nothing wrong. This time, it was his fault and he couldn"t find any words to defend himself. He changed the topic, "I saw you prepared dinner last night."
Xiao Maiguo looked outside the window. He was too upset to reply Yun Peng.
"How about... After work, let"s go out for dinner. At some nice place."
"I don"t want to go out with you."
"Come on, baby. Please."
Xiao Maiguo knew Yun Peng had called him "baby" to soothe his anger because Yun Peng knew he liked it when he called him that. It had worked like magic. His anger immediately dissipated and Xiao Maiguo found himself trying to hide a smile.
"We can go wherever you want."
Xiao Maiguo nodded. "Fine. After work then."
Almost immediately, Yun Peng"s phone rang. Yun Peng looked at the number suspiciously as it was a strange number. After a little hesitation, he picked up the phone call.
"h.e.l.lo," A lady"s soft voice caressed Yun Peng"s ear.
"h.e.l.lo." Yun Peng replied.
"It"s... It"s me, Xuan Tianmei."
Yun Peng wasn"t surprised but stayed silent. Who had given Xuan Tianmei the impression that she could just pick up her phone and call him whenever?
"I... Wanted to know if we could meet somewhere. I wanted to talk to you. About Su Yang." Xuan Tianmei said.
Yun Peng sighed. "Okay. I"ll let you know when, where and how we can meet." Before Xuan Tianmei could say another word, he disconnected the call.
"Stop the car." Xiao Maiguo said suddenly.
Yun Peng looked at him and immediately realized his mood had changed for the worse. "Hey, that was—"
"Stop the stupid car." Xiao Maiguo snapped at Yun Peng.
With a deep sigh, Yun Peng moved closer to the corner of the road and stopped the car.
Without another word, Xiao Maiguo got down from the car and hailed a cab.